Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) is offering a free webinar, The Science of Second Changes with researcher and author Jennifer Doleac. The webinar is on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET.
About the Training
Good public policy is built on more than good intentions—it also requires evidence. Join us for a conversation about how rigorous research can challenge assumptions, improve decision making, and drive meaningful change in the criminal legal system. Jennifer Doleac is an economist who studies crime and is the former executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures. She is the author of The Science of Second Chances. Referred to as “Freakonomics” for criminal justice, Dr. Doleac’s book draws on economic research and real-world experiments, revealing the small-scale interventions that can reduce people’s chances of new arrests and help break the incarceration cycle. The book also shares cautionary tales about promising ideas that fell short.
Join APPR co-director Alison Shames in a lively discussion with Dr. Doleac about her book, her theory of change, and how practitioners can contribute to and leverage academic research to create transformative change.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about causal research and how it informs policymaking.
- Understand an alternative approach to criminal justice reform.
- Learn about criminal justice studies that demonstrate success.
Training Faculty
Alison Shames, director, Center for Effective Public Policy
Ms. Shames is a co–project director of APPR and serves on CEPP’s board of directors. She is a lawyer who has provided training and technical assistance in pretrial justice, community supervision, sentencing, and corrections to dozens of jurisdictions for over 20 years. Ms. Shames previously worked at the Vera Institute of Justice and as an independent justice consultant. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her JD from New York University School of Law.
Jennifer Doleac, economist and criminal justice expert
Dr. Doleac is the author of The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice. She is the former executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures, where she worked with teams to support rigorous policy-relevant research and turn the resulting insights into effective policy. She is also the host of the Probable Causation podcast and previously spent over a decade as an economics professor, working on academic research on crime and discrimination. Dr. Doleac holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University and a BA in economics and mathematics from Williams College. She lives in Houston with her dog, Chula.
Registration Process
If you are interested in attending this webinar on October 14, please complete the training registration.
Please direct any questions to Samuel Steed, operations assistant at the Center for Effective Public Policy, at ssteed@cepp.com.
