About MDRC
Anderson’s research focuses on evaluations of criminal justice practices, reforms, and systems, as well as employment and training programs and youth development programs. Currently, she manages the Pretrial Justice Collaborative project, a study of pretrial supervision techniques and court appearance rates in eight jurisdictions across the country. She is responsible for project management; data management and acquisition; research design; the writing of reports, briefs, and proposals; and implementation research. Anderson is also experienced in data processing and impact analysis. Her past projects include the Pretrial Justice Reform Study, the Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration, the Summer Youth Employment Program Evaluation, and the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential Evaluation. She holds an MSW with a concentration in policy practice and research from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and philosophy from New York University.
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MDRC Publications
BriefFindings from the Pretrial Justice Collaborative
January, 2023Many jurisdictions use electronic monitoring (the use of electronic devices to monitor people’s locations) and sobriety monitoring (drug and alcohol testing) as alternatives to pretrial detention. Drawing on nonexperimental analyses, this brief reports that neither form of monitoring improves court appearance rates or the avoidance of new arrests.
CommentaryMay, 2022Research suggests that pretrial policy reforms supporting arrested individuals’ release pending trial—unless evidence shows they will not return to court or they pose a threat to public safety—have positive results. This post discusses several policies that were established to prevent the overuse of pretrial detention.
ReportEffects of New Jersey’s Criminal Justice Reform
November, 2019In 2017, New Jersey implemented sweeping changes to its pretrial justice system. This report is one of a planned series on the impacts of those changes. It describes how the reforms affected short-term outcomes including arrests, complaint charging decisions, release conditions, and initial jail bookings.
ReportFinal Impacts and Costs of the Los Angeles County Transitional Subsidized Employment Program
July, 2019Los Angeles County tested two different models of subsidized employment for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients: one subsidizes the wages of individuals placed at employers in the nonprofit or public sector, and the other offers wage subsidies to for-profit employers. This report offers findings from implementation, impact, and cost studies.
ReportImplementation and Early Impacts of the STEP Forward Program
November, 2017This report presents implementation and interim impact findings from a random assignment evaluation of STEP Forward, a subsidized employment program in San Francisco serving a diverse group of low-income job seekers. In the first year, STEP Forward boosted employment and earnings, which suggests that participants obtained better jobs.
ReportA Study of the Implementation and Impacts of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program
April, 2017This report examines the impacts of the nation’s largest summer youth jobs program — New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) — on young people’s education, employment, and earnings. The analysis uses an experimental design based on SYEP’s randomized lottery application system. The report also describes SYEP’s implementation and participants’ experiences.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Jurisdictions across the country are striving to increase equity in their pretrial justice systems by reducing their use of pretrial detention and money bail, which affect Black people and other people of color disproportionately and are linked to negative health and well-being outcomes. Despite the intentions of these reforms, there is little rigorous evidence...
Bret Barden, Melanie Skemer, Chloe Anderson Golub, Brit Henderson, Lily Freedman, Emily Brennan, Sarah Picard, Rae Walker
Jurisdictions across the United States are taking steps to reduce the number of people who are detained in jail unnecessarily while awaiting trial. These reforms include the use of risk-assessment tools to inform release decisions and...
Sarah Picard, Melanie Skemer, Bret Barden, Chloe Anderson Golub, Brit Henderson, Lily Freedman, Rae Walker, Michelle S. Manno, Raul Armenta, Emily Brennan, Kyla WassermanMDRC’s Center for Criminal Justice Research is dedicated to developing, evaluating, and disseminating actionable models for justice reform that improve efficacy, mitigate harm, and center those directly impacted by the criminal legal system.
We are committed to advancing evidence-based, equitable, and accessible solutions, sharing...
Many jurisdictions across the United States are rethinking the “front end” of the criminal justice system — the pretrial period between an arrest and the disposition of a criminal case. Often these reforms focus on the initial decisions that judges and other court stakeholders make about whether to detain individuals in jail while they are awaiting trial, and on the...
Dan Bloom, Richard Hendra, Melanie Skemer, David Navarro, Sally Dai, Bret Barden, Kyla Wasserman, Jillian Verrillo, Chloe Anderson GolubOver the past 80 years, a variety of subsidized employment strategies have been used for two main purposes: (1) to provide work-based income support for people who are not able to find regular, unsubsidized jobs; and (2) to improve the employability of disadvantaged groups. Programs with the first goal have typically emerged during periods of sustained high...