Our Students
Keramet A. Reiter
Year: 3rd Year Grad Student - JSP
Email: keramet@berkeley.edu
Biography:Keramet Reiter is a Ph.D. student in Jurisprudence and Social Policy. Keramet received a dual B.A. in Social Studies (social theory) and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, an M.A. in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, and a J.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. Her dissertation examines the supermaximum security prison boom: the explosion in the late 1980s and early 1990s of high-security, intense-deprivation-condition prisons across the United States. Her primary interests in this work include the history of criminal justice reform, the institutional development of the prison, and understanding and mitigating the day-to-day impacts of U.S. incarceration policies. She brings ten years of experience in prisoner education, prison conditions research, and prisoners’ rights advocacy to this dissertation project.
Education:AB, magna cum laude, Harvard University (2003)
MA, John Jay College of Criminal Justice - City University of New York (2006)
JD, Boalt Hall - University of California, Berkeley (2009)
Crime & Criminology
History of Prisons & Punishment
Philosophy of Punishment
Institute for the Study of Social Change, Youth Violence Prevention Fellow, Berkeley (2009-11)
Selznick Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (2007-08)
Young Scholars Award, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2006)
Weissman Fellowship, Harvard University (2002)
Teaching & Editing Experience:
Teaching Assistant, Juvenile Justice (Fall 2009)
Teaching Assistant, Twentieth Century American Legal History (Spring 2009)
Teaching Assistant, Theories of Law & Society (Fall 2008)
Lead Instructor, College Algebra, San Quentin Prison University Project (Summer 2008)
Member, California Law Review (2007-09)
Submissions Editor, Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law (2007-08)
Publications & Presentations:
"Experimentation on Prisoners: Persistent Dilemmas in Rights and Regulations," California Law Review (April 2009)
"Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons," co-authored with Jamie Fellner, a Human Rights Watch Report (October 2006)
"Follow the Money: Re-Thinking Economies of Crime," presented with Todd Clear at an American Criminal Justice Society Panel (2006)
United States District Court, Northern District of California, Pro Se Department Judicial Extern (Spring 2009)
Federal Public Defender, Legal Intern (Summer 2008)
Southern Center for Human Rights, Legal Intern (Summer 2007)
Human Rights Watch, U.S. Program Associate (2004-06)
Prison Law Office, Fellow (2003-04)
