About MDRC
Williams works in MDRC’s Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment policy area, where she is a lead programmer on the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternative to Contempt project as well as on criminal justice studies, including Pretrial Justice Collaborative and the Los Angeles County Reentry Integrated Services Project. Prior to working at MDRC, Williams interned at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, where she contributed to coral reef research, and tutored math to incarcerated men through the Bard Prison Initiative. Williams graduated from Bard College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and environmental and urban studies, and has a certificate in data science from UCLA.
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MDRC Publications
ReportJune, 2022The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) project integrated procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement at six child support agencies. This report compares the service and enforcement experiences of parents randomly assigned to receive PJAC services with those of parents assigned to business as usual.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Bret Barden, Sarah Picard, Michelle S. Manno, Ann Bickerton, Douglas Phillips, Osvaldo Avila, Viktoriya Syrov, Emmi Obara, Sara Ellis, Olivia Williams, Emily BrennanEvery year, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ Office of Diversion and Reentry ( ODR ) provides reentry services for thousands of people involved in the justice system. These services cover a wide variety of needs, ranging from employment services and skills training for individuals on adult felony probation to connections to community organizations...
Kristin Porter, Bret Barden, Melanie Skemer, Chloe Anderson Golub, Brit Henderson, Viktoriya Syrov, Lily Freedman, Emily Brennan, Sara Ellis, Olivia Williams, Sarah PicardJurisdictions across the United States are taking steps to reduce the number of people who are detained in jail unnecessarily while awaiting trial. In particular, they are seeking to reduce the use of cash bail as a mechanism to ensure court appearance. Many jurisdictions have introduced risk-assessment tools to inform release decisions and pretrial supervision...
Melanie Skemer, Dan Bloom, Dina A. R. Israel, Louisa Treskon, Douglas Phillips, Rebecca Behrmann, Caroline Mage, Olivia Williams, Jennifer (Jenny) Hausler, Yana Kusayeva, Cassandra T-PedersonThe Office of Child Support Enforcement launched the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt ( PJAC ) demonstration to test the efficacy of incorporating procedural justice principles into child support practices as a cost-effective alternative to contempt. In this context, contempt is a legal action involving the use of civil court proceedings against...