Ram Subramanian

Ram Subramanian is the managing director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program. In his role as managing director, Subramanian plays a critical role helping to shape and direct the programmatic work, including data-driven reports and analyses that examine the racial and economic disparities in the criminal justice system.

Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Subramanian most recently served as the editorial director of the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), where he oversaw all of Vera’s outward-facing publications. Before his appointment to editorial director, Subramanian worked in Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections, providing research and technical assistance to state and county departments of corrections. His primary focus areas were sentencing laws, community corrections, prison conditions, and addressing sexual abuse in custodial settings. Subramanian also played a leadership role starting up Vera’s international comparative sentencing and corrections work. In this capacity he planned multiple study trips to Northern Europe between 2013 and 2019, helping to jump-start a new movement of criminal justice practitioners, advocates, and other social justice organizations that focuses its attention on how European criminal justice policy and practice can inform reform efforts in the United States. In both of his roles, Subramanian also researched and wrote many groundbreaking reports including Reimagining Prison, Incarceration’s Front Door, Out of Sight, Overlooked, and Playbook for Change?.

Earlier in his career, Subramanian worked as a researcher, advocate, and human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe and South Africa, focusing on issues of democracy, judicial independence, and sexual and political violence. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, a law degree from the University of Melbourne Law School, and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.