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Dawn Milam

Deputy Managing Editor, The Lab

Dawn Milam has worked on national, statewide, and local campaigns for criminal legal system reform.  Her work includes research and writing on bail policy, the death penalty, and prosecutorial accountability, as well as policy recommendations for elected officials. She received her JD with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law and served on the North Carolina Law Review editorial board. Before her law career, Dawn was a public high school educator.

From Voting Rights to Clean Energy, Georgia Voters Favor Democratic Policy Priorities in Senate Runoff

Executive Summary With control of the United States Senate hanging in the balance, new polling from Data for Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute shows that a bipartisan majority of Georgia voters are more likely to support Senate candidates who embrace Democratic policy priorities on a broad range of issues, including health care, clean energy, […]

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Voters Support Reforming Systems of Incarceration, Probation, and Parole in the United States

Executive Summary American voters believe our legal system should prioritize helping and supporting people over incarcerating them—and probation and parole programs must be reformed to serve that function, new polling shows. Voters want fewer people in jails and prisons, and fewer people subject to surveillance and control by law enforcement. Instead, they want probation and […]

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Final Election Results May Come Later than Voters Expect

Executive Summary A Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute poll shows that nearly half of likely voters (47%) believe that they will know the winner of the presidential election on election day. These results are alarming because President Donald Trump continues to suggest, and media outlets continue to repeat, that the winner of […]

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The Case for a Federal Job Guarantee Program

Executive Summary The coronavirus pandemic has brought the country to the brink of economic collapse. While the CARES Act provided some temporary relief, sustained economic recovery requires a plan to give unemployed workers an opportunity to support themselves and their families with dignity. New Deal-style federal jobs programs can help eliminate working poverty and create […]

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Building Community-Based Emergency Response System

Executive Summary Though police officers are neither medical professionals nor social workers, cities and counties across the country routinely send armed law enforcement officers to respond to emergency calls for help when a person is experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. This makes as little sense as sending a social worker into a home […]

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