"Renowned Criminologist Joan Petersilia Joins Stanford Law School Faculty"

The title of this post is the heading of this press release from the Stanford Law School.  I usually do not channel my inner-Leiter, but this faculty move is noteworthy for lots of reasons for sentencing fans.  These excerpts from the press release highlight why:

Stanford Law School today announced the appointment of preeminent criminologist Joan Petersilia as Professor of Law. Petersilia has spent more than 25 years studying the performance of U.S. criminal justice agencies and has been instrumental in affecting prison and parole reform in California and throughout the U.S. Petersilia currently serves as Professor of Criminology, Law and Society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Center for Evidence-Based Corrections.

Petersilia is the author of eight books about corrections public policy, and her research on parole reform, prisoner reintegration and sentencing policy has fueled the overhaul of California’s corrections system. As a special advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger since 2003, she helped reorganize juvenile and adult corrections, established a new Office of Research and an Office of Policy and Planning, and worked with the California Legislature to implement prison and parole reform.

A criminologist with a background in empirical research and social science, Petersilia will also serve as faculty co-director for the Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC). She will help SCJC assess policies related to crime control, sentencing, and corrections, and develop nonpartisan analyses and recommendations intended to aid public officials, legal practitioners, and the public in understanding criminal justice policy at the state and national levels.

“As an acknowledged leading expert on sentencing and corrections reform, Joan brings an incomparable understanding of sentencing and corrections policy, which is rapidly becoming one of the most salient topics in the U.S. criminal justice system,” said Robert Weisberg, Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.