By Colleen V. Chien, Founder, Paper Prisons Initiative and Professor, Berkeley Law School One in three adults has a criminal record. As such, one of the most important and unresolved questions in criminal justice policy is whether people can move beyond their past records and re-integrate into society. The evidence suggests that they can —… Read more: Paper Prisons’ Digital Juneteenth Pre-Pilot: From (Records) Clearance to Takeoff, What Happens When People Learn They’re Free? (Jan. 15, 2026)

New year, new partnership, with the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office, on “Digital Juneteenth” initiatives. While California’s “Clean Slate” laws automate record expungement, many individuals remain unaware they’ve been cleared. Drawing inspiration from the spirit of Juneteenth—where freedom required awareness to be realized—in 2024, Paper Prisons launched a “Digital Juneteenth” research initiative to address… Read more: Advancing “Digital Juneteenth” with the Santa Clara County Public Defender (Jan. 12, 2026)

By Colleen V. Chien, Founder, Paper Prisons Initiative and Professor, Berkeley Law School What do the Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights decisions have in common with the rescue of Healthcare.gov or the delivery of effective digital services during the COVID pandemic? Each transformed the lives of millions of Americans—and each was made possible, in part,… Read more: Tech Bono (Dec. 18, 2025)

By Audrey Im, Berkeley CS ‘23 grad, Paper Prisons research associate, Shreya Shankar, Berkeley CS PhD candidate The California Racial Justice Act provides a mechanism for defendants (and the convicted) to challenge a charge, conviction, or sentence if it is sought or obtained in a racially disparate manner. Paper Prisons’ RJA data tool provides data… Read more: Using New Generative AI Data-Processing Tool, DocETL: A Simple Guide (July 22, 2025)

At least 10M Americans have lost their licenses for reasons unrelated to driving. What is the impact of reforming license suspension practices and restoring licenses to drivers? Using CPS data and a staggered diff-in-diff design, our new working paper suggests an unexpected payoff – measurable increases in state-wide employment when reforms are of high-quality and… Read more: New Working Paper on the Impact of Debt-Based License Suspension Reform (April 7, 2025)