Lauren-Brooke Eisen is the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program, where she leads the organization’s work to ensure a more fair, humane, and effective justice system. Her team focuses on exposing the profound social and economic hardships that affect those who encounter the justice system in addition to holding our broader Democratic institutions accountable for producing better public safety outcomes.
Eisen has authored dozens of nationally recognized reports and articles on reducing overincarceration. Her work has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, Governing, Time, Just Security, U.S. News & World Report, the Daily News, and the Marshall Project, and she has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, National Public Radio, as well as many other television and radio news programs.
Eisen is the editor of Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press, 2024) and author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press, 2017). After the book was published, Eisen received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to conduct international research on public-private partnerships in corrections. Eisen also co-wrote a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Prosecutors and Prosecution (Oxford University Press, 2021); contributed a chapter on the criminal justice process in New York State for New York’s Criminal Justice System (Carolina Academic Press, 2019). Eisen has also authored numerous law review articles.
Eisen is a member of the Council on Criminal Justice and previously served on the New York City Bar’s Task Force on Mass Incarceration. She co-chaired Manhattan District Attorney–elect Alvin Bragg’s transition team and served on the transition committee for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Eisen taught an undergraduate seminar on mass incarceration at Yale University, served as an adjunct instructor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and currently teaches for the Columbia University Pre-College Program.
Before joining the Brennan Center, Eisen was a senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, where she worked on the sentencing and corrections team to implement policies in multiple states to improve public safety while reducing prison populations. She also previously served as an assistant district attorney in New York City, where she worked in the appeals bureau, the criminal court bureau, and the sex crimes special victim’s bureau. Before entering law school, Eisen worked as a beat reporter for a daily newspaper in Laredo, Texas, covering criminal justice and immigration. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Publications
The Necessity of Performance Measures for Prosecutors, The Oxford Handbook of Prosecutors and Prosecution, May 26, 2021
If We Only Knew the Cost: Scratching the Surface on How Much it Costs to Assess and Collect Court Imposed Criminal Fees and Fines, UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review, October 2020
The Criminal Justice Process in New York State New York's Criminal Justice System, 2019
Privatized Corrections: Questions of Legality. Criminology & Public Policy, May 12, 2019
Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration, November 7, 2017
Paying for Your Time: How Charging Inmates Fees Behind Bars May Violate the Excessive Fines Clause, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Journal of Public Interest Law, Spring, 2014
The Potential of Community Corrections to Improve Safety and Reduce Incarceration, Vera Institute of Justice, July 2013
A View From the States: Evidence Based Public Safety Legislation, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Summer 2012
Reallocating Justice Resources: A Review of 2011 State Sentencing Trends, Vera Institute of Justice, February 29, 2012
Articles & Commentary
Alabama using COVID funds to build new prisons — is that Biden's vision? The Hill October 15, 2021
Decarcerating America: How the Federal Government Can Incentivize States To Reverse Mass Incarceration, National Urban League, July 15, 2021
The criminal justice system can be different in a Biden administration, The Hill December 9, 2020
True-blue progressives vs. the homeless: What the Upper West Side needs to learn, New York Daily News August 14, 2020
No Soap. Broken Sinks. We Will All Pay for Coronavirus Ravaging Prisons, Newsweek, March 26, 2020
Fees, fines and ability to pay, The Hill, February 10, 2020
Resistance to Private Prison Industry Mounts Amid Debate Over Trump’s Immigration Detention Policies. Common Dreams, August 1, 2019
Joe Biden, Cory Booker, the 1994 Crime Bill and the future: How to unwind American mass incarceration, New York Daily News, May 21, 2019
The Private Prison Experiments: Is There Any Positive in For-Profit Imprisonment?, Salon, February 25, 2019
Inside Private Prisons: New Book Examines the Industry Around Mass Incarceration, American Constitution Society, January 9, 2019
How to Create More Humane Private Prisons, New York Times, November 14, 2018
The Big Winners in DA Races: Women and Black Candidates, The Crime Report, November 12, 2018
Review: A Yale Law Professor's Big Look at How We Punish Small Crimes, The National Book Review, September 7, 2018
America's Justice System Has the Wrong Goals, CityLab, April 26, 2018
Credit for Falling Crime, U.S. News & World Report, February 18, 2018
What Is the Best Way to Hold Private Prisons to Account?, Newsweek, December 13, 2017
Q&A: Lauren-Brooke Eisen Talks Private Prisons, Mass Incarceration, and X-Box's, The National Book Review, November 8, 2017
Private Prisons Lock Up Thousands Of Americans With Almost No Oversight, Time, November 8, 2017
When A Small Town's Private Prison Goes Bust, The Marshall Project, November 6, 2017
How to Get States to Reduce Crime and Incarceration At Once, Time, October 4, 2017
Q&A: A Family Memoir of Abraham Zapruder's JFK Assassination Film, The National Book Review, September 21, 2017
Review: An Infamous 1917 Missing-Girl Case, and the Woman Detective who Solved it,The National Book Review, May 5, 2017
How President Trump and Jeff Sessions Can Fix America’s Private Prisons, Fortune, March 3, 2017
Private Prisons Are Poised for a Comeback Under Trump. Here’s How to Reform Them, Vox, January 13, 2017
Crowded Prisons at the Crossroads, New York Daily News, December 23, 2016
39 Percent of Prisoners Should Not Be In Prison, Time, December 9, 2016
Clemency Is Now Critical, US News, November 15, 2016
How 'Black Lives Matter' and Falling Crime Are Rewriting the Rules for Legal Dramas, The Hollywood Reporter, October 3, 2016
Book Review: Blood in the Water, The National Book Review, August 24, 2016
GOP Takes Step Forward on Justice Reform, US News, July 19, 2016
Was 1960's Liberalism the Cause of Today's Overincarceration Crisis?, The National Book Review, May 10, 2016
The Complex History of the Controversial 1994 Crime Bill, MSNBC, April 14, 2016
Why Torture Doesn't Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation, The New York Law Review, April 4, 2016
How Washington Can Help End Mass Incarceration, The Hill, March 22, 2016
Spotlight on Poverty: The Reverse Mass Incarceration Act, Spotlight on Poverty, January 5, 2016
Criminal Justice Reform in 2015, Huffington Post, December 28, 2015
Next President Should Support Plan to Reverse Mass Incarceration, Huffington Post, October 13, 2015
Obama's Final 500 Days, The Marshall Project, September 3, 2015
Mandatory Minimum Sentences — Time to End Counterproductive Policy, South Coast Today, June 9, 2015
How Do We Solve the Mass Incarceration Crisis? Emily Bazelon Has the Answer, National Book Review
Prisons Shouldn't Create Debtors, USA Today, June 5, 2015
America's Faulty Perception of Crime Rates, Huffington Post, March 16, 2015
The Gatekeepers, Marshall Project, March 16, 2015
The Crime Scene, Politico Magazine, March/April 2015
Diminishing returns of high incarceration, USA Today, February 13, 2015
What Is on the Horizon for Grand Jury Reform?, Huffington Post, January 23, 2015
Are More Criminal Justice Reforms on the Horizon in 2015?, Huffington Post, December 29, 2014
Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations, New York Law Journal, December 18, 2014
Poverty, Incarceration, and Criminal Justice Debt, Talk Poverty, December 2, 2014
"Felons, Not Families" Oversimplifies a Complex Reality, Huffington Post, November 24, 2014
Prosecutors Can Play Role in Ending Mass Incarceration, Huffington Post, September 30, 2014
Federal Aid to Local Law Enforcement Should Be Success-Oriented, Huffington Post, September 11, 2014
Mandate Taped Interrogations, Albany Times-Union, July 7, 2014
Embracing Technology Can Reduce False Convictions, Huffington Post, May 28, 2014
New Report Examines Growth of Incarceration, Huffington Post, May 9, 2014
Georgia Governor Vetoes Private Probation Bill, Huffington Post, May 1, 2014
Putting Heroin Users in Jail Won't Help Louisiana's Crime Rate, Times-Picayune, April 11, 2014
Attorney General Holder Combats 'Tough on Crime' Legacy, Huffington Post, March 28, 2014
Inferno: An Anatomy of American Punishment, New York Law Journal, March 26, 2014
Congress Should Get Moving on Criminal Justice Reform, Roll Call, March 18, 2014
Let’s Reward Innovative Policing With Fed $$$, The Crime Report, March 6, 2014
How to Fight the Heroin Epidemic, MSNBC, February 23, 2014
Better Way to Keep Track of Taxpayers Dollars, The Hill, February 3, 2014
Overcriminalization Task Force Should Focus on Reducing Prison Populations, The Hill, July 26, 2013
Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People's Justice, New York Law Journal, March 22, 2013
In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process, New York Law Journal, July 3, 2012
The Law of Superheroes, New York Law Journal, October 23, 2012
The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, New York Law Journal, September 22, 2011
Additional Media Appearances
Battle over Bail Reform, Fox 5 NY, July 2021
The Business of Private Prisons, Yale University, April 23, 2021
Justice Policy Champion 101: Virtual convening, Justice Action Network, March 11, 2021
No City Limits 2021, Robin Hood Foundation, March 1, 2021
America’s Damaging Criminal Legal System: Reimagining the System at Every Level, Yale University Philanthropy Conference, February 12, 2021
Biden’s Executive Order on Private Prisons, MSNBC, January 23, 2021
Building On The Legacy Of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Wise Free Synagogue January 18, 2021
‘Prison for Profit’: Documentary Film Screening and Panel Discussion, Birkbeck University of London, December 4, 2020
Debt in Texas: The Unintended Consequences of Government Fines and Fees, Federal Reserve Bank of Texas December 2, 2020
Covid-19 and Mass Incarceration: Where We Are, and Where We Go From Here, Innovations Conference, June 23, 2020
Cities & Counties for Fine and Fee Justice webinar, Fines & Fees Justice Center, June 17, 2020
Crowded Prisons Are Festering 'Petri Dishes' For Coronavirus, Observers Warn, NPR, May 1, 2020
More than 20 states are using prison labor to make hand sanitizer and masks while the coronavirus spreads through the prison system, Business Insider, April 14, 2020
Inmates, Relatives Say Indiana Prisons Lack COVID-19 Safeguards, NPR, April 10, 2020
Coronavirus and the U.S. Prison System, The Washington Journal, April 2020
Maryland prison system confirms first coronavirus cases, Baltimore Sun, March 30, 2020
On the Count - The Prison And Criminal Justice Report, WBAI, January 4, 2020
The First Step Act promised widespread reform. What has the criminal justice overhaul achieved so far?, NBC News, November 24, 2019
What is the 1994 Crime Bill?, NBC News, August 2019
A look at Sanders’ plan to reduce the U.S. prison population, MSNBC, August 18, 2019
Unequal Outcomes: Most ICE Detainees Held In Rural Areas Where Deportation Risks Soar, NPR, August 15, 2019
Meet the Journalist: Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Pulitzer Center, May 8, 2019
CA Governor spares 700+ lives by ending death penalty, MSNBC, March 12, 2019
J.P. Morgan Chase Cuts Ties With Private Prisons Over Public Pressure, WNYC, March 11, 2019
The Private Prison Industry Just Suffered a Major Blow. And It Could Just Be the Beginning., Mother Jones, March 7, 2019
Is Inmate Labor Modern Day Slavery?, NPR, August 2018
Deadly uprising at Delaware prison highlights widespread understaffing problem, CBS News, July 2018
Sentencing Reform and the First Step Act, MSNBC, May 31, 2018
Punishment for Profit, Criminal Injustice Podcast, February 6, 2018
Inside Private Prisons, KATU, January 18, 2018
'Inside Private Prisons' Lays Out History of Private Correctional Facilities, KQED, January 17, 2018
Lauren-Brooke on MSNBC, MSNBC, January 12, 2018
Inside Private Prisons, Cato Daily Podcast, December 29, 2017
Crime Rates Drop in 28 Major U.S. Cities, CNN, December 28, 2017
Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Books, Beats & Beyond, December 10, 2017
Big Money As Private Immigrant Jails Boom, NPR, November 21, 2017
Prisons of Profit, Slate's The Gist, November 15, 2017
Inside the Multi-Billion Dollar Private Prison Industry, KGO Radio, November 14, 2017
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, CBS Radio, November 13, 2017
Tide Turning Tuesday, Off Kilter, November 9, 2017
Meet the Candidate: Mayor de Blasio; Inside the Gop Tax Plan; Civil War Refresher; What to Do with Private Prisons, WNYC, November 3, 2017
Making Sense Of The Russia Inquiry And A New Era For The Private Prison Industry, Diane Rehm Show, November 3, 2017
10/11/17 Lauren Brooke-Eisen, Marc Bernier Show, October 11, 2017
Jared Sexton Yates & Lauren Brooke-Eisen - Miami Book Fair Author, Only in Miami, October 2, 2017
A Look At The State Of The Private Prison Industry, KJZZ Radio, August 24, 2017
Between Public and Private, NPR’s Innovation Hub, August 7, 2017
Soft Cell: California Inmates Can Pay for Cushier Accommodations, NBC News, June 18, 2017
The Source: Report Estimates 39 Percent of U.S. Inmates Are 'Unnecessarily Incarcerated', TPR, March 2, 2017
The Private Prison Industry Is Making A Comeback, WBUR, February 27, 2017
Why So Many Americans Are Unnecessarily Incarcerated, WNYC, December 20, 2016
New approach to incarceration, Fox News, Dec 20, 2016
Justice Sotomayor Delivers Blistering Dissent in Utah Search Case, NPR, June 20, 2016
National Reentry Week, Pete Dominick Show, April 29, 2016
Debtors Prison, Wharton Business School on Sirius XM, September 21, 2015
Bipartisanship in Prison Reform, WORT, August 11, 2015
Garland Robinette: Pick-A-Prison..., WWL.com, July 13, 2015
Krystal Clear, MSNBC, June 3, 2015
StandUP! w/Pete Dominick, SiriusXM, May 21, 2015
8 O'Clock Buzz, WORT, May 11, 2015
Capitol Pressroom, WCNY, May 4, 2015
Virginia's Rising Prison Rates, WVTF, May 4, 2015
Study Shows Increasing Incarceration Has Diminishing Returns, WRKF, February 20, 2015
Study Finds Crowding Jails Fails To Substantially Reduce Crime, WWNO, February 13, 2015
The Leonard Lopate Show: How do Grand Juries, and Trial Juries, Influence Our Criminal Justice System?, WNYC, December 12, 2014
Double Charged: The True Co$t Of Juvenile Justice, Youth Radio, May 8, 2014
Morning Edition: 21st Century Debtors' Prisons, NPR, May 20, 2014
Garland Robinette: On The Judicial System and The Poor, WWL.com, November 19, 2013
Pay to Stay: Jails Raise Revenue by Charging Inmates, Washington Post TV, September 5, 2013