About

Amy E. Lerman is a Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as the Executive Director of the Possibility Lab. Her research focuses on issues of race, public opinion, and political behavior, particularly as they relate to punishment and social inequality in America. She has authored two books on the American criminal justice system—The Modern Prison Paradox and Arresting Citizenship—and her most recent book, Good Enough for Government Work, examines how perceptions of government influence citizens' attitudes toward privatization and public services. Her scholarship has been published in prominent journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, and Perspectives on Politics. In addition to her academic work, she has served as a speechwriter and communications consultant for national nonprofits and members of Congress, and has worked as a community organizer in Latin America and Southeast Asia. She also served as an adjunct faculty member of the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison. Her expertise includes criminal justice, health policy, political psychology, race and ethnicity, democracy, and public opinion.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Criminology
• Psychiatry
• Law
• Public relations
• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• The Classroom and the Yard: The Contrasting Context of Prison Higher Education and Its Role in Racial Bias Mitigation

  Law & Social Inquiry · 2025-06-30

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Prison has long been recognized as a racialized institution in America, where race determines myriad aspects of life—from where individuals sleep to those with whom they live, eat, and socialize during incarceration. However, there is little evidence on how to effectively remediate prisons’ deep racial divisions—a question that is imperative given that interracial animus in prisons can be both a result and a determinant of racial conflict and violence. In this study, we argue that higher education in prison has significant potential to improve racial attitudes and foster racial integration by providing a “contrasting context” for interracial interaction in the classroom within an otherwise racially segregated institution. Using administrative data on college-level course completion, an original longitudinal survey of prison college students, and in-depth qualitative interviews with prison college alumni, we show evidence of shifts in racial attitudes and self-reported behavior as students move through their college career. Our results demonstrate the potential for prison higher education to shift race-based norms and offer a framework through which to analyze prison education that prioritizes outcomes of interest beyond recidivism.

  PublisherDOI

• Invisible Students

  Metropolitan Universities · 2025-04-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The challenge: This paper examines the state of knowledge and evaluation in prison higher education. Little is known about its efforts, outcomes, and impact or about the students enrolled in such efforts. Potential consequences: Incarcerated college students are a disenfranchised population with restricted autonomy. Without understanding prison higher education efforts and outcomes, colleges and universities run the risk of further marginalizing this group of students. Description/analysis/methods: Using the first comprehensive national survey of prison higher education programs, we assess whether and how data are collected on incarcerated college students and whether these data are used for student tracking and/or outcomes evaluation. We then elucidate a variety of challenges that help explain the current lack of quality data. Rationale/reflection/replication: We find that current data collection among prison higher education programs is extremely limited; most programs are unable to provide basic information about their students, instructors, or key student success metrics such as persistence and completion. We conclude with recommendations for program administrators, colleges and universities, and policymakers involved in the work of prison higher education, equity, and access to higher education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Equivalency Framing of Problems and Policy Solutions

  2025-01-30

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  While there is a large political science literature on framing effects, almost none of it has focused on equivalency framing of actual problems and potential solutions. We investigate whether the public expresses more concern about societal problems when logically equivalent information concerning their prevalence is framed in negative rather than in positive terms, and whether support for ameliorative policies changes when policies are framed as reducing the incidence of bad outcomes as opposed to increasing the incidence of good ones. From experiments covering a diverse set of issues, we find that equivalency frames have a consistent effect on the public’s evaluation of social problems: negative frames provoke substantially more negative emotional reactions to problems and lead to judgments that the problems are more serious and deserving of government attention. At the same time, we find no differences in support for gain-framed versus loss-framed policies designed to ameliorate these problems.

  PublisherDOI

• Equivalency Framing of Problems and Policy Solutions

  Political Behavior · 2025-03-21 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining Public Safety: Defining “Community” in Participatory Research

  Law & Social Inquiry · 2023-08-22 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  In the context of a national movement to defund police departments, many American cities are starting to reimagine public safety, as activists demand new practices that maintain safety while minimizing harm, as well as ensuring accountability when harms occur. Drawing on Everyday Peace Indicators methodologies, we argue that “community-centered” measurement, combined with researcher-practitioner partnerships, can help move both researchers and policymakers toward a more meaningful approach to policy design and evaluation. However, the application of community-centered measurement to the context of American policing raises important theoretical and practical concerns—in particular, the question of how community is defined, and who gets to define it. In this article, we ask: how do we define “community” in participatory research contexts where the concept of community is overlapping and contested? Using the example of a recent study carried out in the City of Oakland, we illustrate the complexities of applying a community-centered measurement process to the case of public safety and, more broadly, to police reform in American cities. We conclude with a discussion of both the benefits and limitations of our own approach, as well as a set of considerations for those engaging in participatory research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Americans do talk about peace − just not the same way people do in other countries

  2023-09-20

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The effects of post-release community supervision reform

  Journal of Experimental Criminology · 2022-07-13

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate under automatic criminal record relief laws

  Law & Society Review · 2022-08-04 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract States have begun to pass legislation to provide automatic relief for eligible criminal records, potentially reducing the lifelong collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement. Yet numerous historical examples suggest that racially neutral policies can have profoundly disparate effects across racial groups. In the case of criminal record relief, racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate has not yet been examined. We find that in California, one in five people with convictions met criteria for full conviction relief under the state's automatic relief laws. Yet the share of Black Americans eligible for relief was lower than White Americans, reproducing racial disparities in criminal records. We identify two policy amendments that would reduce the share of Black men in California with convictions on their criminal records from 22% to 9%, thereby narrowing the difference compared to White men from 15 to seven percentage points. Put another way, an additional one in seven Black men currently has a conviction record, compared to their White counterparts. This would decline to an additional one in 14 if both hypothetical policy amendments were incorporated. We close with discussion of criminal history data quality limitations, which pose a second key challenge to equitable implementation of automatic criminal record relief reforms nationwide.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond Pell restoration: Addressing persistent funding challenges in prison higher education toward racial and economic justice.

  Journal of Diversity in Higher Education · 2022-09-22 · 9 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Racial Equity in Eligibility for a Clean Slate under Automatic Criminal Record Relief Laws

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Vesla M. Weaver

  Johns Hopkins University

  9 shared

• Meredith Sadin

  University of California, Berkeley

  9 shared

• Jessie Harney

  Colorado State University

  8 shared

• Katherine McCabe

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  5 shared

• Alyssa Mooney

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Joshua Page

  University of Minnesota

  3 shared

• Sunita Sah

  Sunraysia Institute of TAFE

  3 shared

• David Tannenbaum

  University of Utah

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Best Book Award from the Urban Politics Section of the Ameri…
• Woodrow Wilson Award from the American Political Science Ass…
• Kammerer Award from the American Political Science Associati…