About Amanda
Amanda Klonsky Ed.L.D., M.S.W.
Dr. Amanda Klonsky is a Research and Policy Fellow at the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project.
Prior to the pandemic, Amanda worked as an educator in jails and prisons for more than 15 years. She speaks widely on issues of education and incarceration. Her work focuses on expanding access to education for people who are impacted by mass incarceration. More recently, Amanda has been engaged in the efforts to respond to the crisis of COVID-19 in jails and prisons, contributing editorials and commenting in media venues including The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, and PBS News Hour.
Amanda earned a Doctorate in Education Leadership at Harvard University (2018) and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago (2011). Her doctoral thesis traces the stories of young men in Chicago who were detained in the Cook County Jail during the period of emerging adulthood.
Before entering Harvard, Amanda taught youth in confinement in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, where she co-led an arts and literacy program for detained youth. She went on to launch a district-wide initiative at Chicago Public Schools, to support post-release youth in returning to their home communities and schools. Most recently, Amanda served in the leadership of a large prison education organization that operates in jails, prisons, and detention centers across the Northeastern United States.
To contact Amanda with media inquiries, or to arrange lectures, workshops, or consulting work, please send a message at the link below.
The views represented on this site are hers alone, and do not represent any other institution or organization.
March 16, 2020/New York Times
If you think a cruise ship is a dangerous place to be during a pandemic, consider America’s jails and prisons. The new coronavirus spreads at its quickest in closed environments. And places like nursing homes in affected areas have begun to take precautions at the behest of families and experts. As this new disease spreads, it has become equally important for all of us to ask what steps are being taken to protect the health of people in jails and prisons, and the staff who work in them.
Amanda Klonsky / Read Full Article
Writing
I write to tell the stories and examine the policies impacting young people who are navigating the space between childhood and adulthood in American jails.
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Nov 7, 2019/Chicago Sun-Times
Youth who are detained are more likely to drop out of school, which in turn increases their likelihood of being rearrested and returning to jail. Jailing youth creates and perpetuates a vicious cycle. Studies show a strong correlation between the number of days a young person spends in pretrial detention, and higher rates of re-arrest and re-incarceration.
Amanda Klonsky / Read Full Article