Sarah Picard is an expert in policy-level reform in the adult criminal justice system. With twenty years of experience conducting rigorous research and providing technical assistance to policymakers and practitioners across the country, her work prioritizes the translation of research evidence to practice in the service of real-world problem-solving. Picard currently leads MDRC’s Center for Criminal Justice Research, where she oversees a portfolio of projects spanning critical issues in criminal justice, including pretrial justice, fines and fees, diversion and reentry, and violence prevention. She acts as lead investigator on two studies that examine the consequences of legal financial obligations in Alabama and North Carolina and that consider alternative practices in collaboration with local stakeholders, and is overseeing a recently funded project to evaluate the impact of a hospital-based violence intervention project in Brooklyn, New York.
Prior to joining MDRC, Picard co-founded and directed the Center for Justice Innovation’s Research-Practice Strategies Department. In this capacity, she led the Center’s engagement with several national initiatives, including the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge and the Advancing Pretrial Policy & Research initiative. She has extensive experience studying the use of actuarial risk assessment tools in court settings, as well as problem-solving efforts ranging from pretrial innovations to community-based gun violence prevention and drug and mental health courts. Picard is the author of numerous technical reports and articles on these topics. She received her Ph.D. in criminal justice from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York and is an adjunct lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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