Dr. Brie Williams, Professor of Medicine at UCSF, is a physician trained in geriatrics and palliative care. Her work focuses on transforming correctional culture to improve the health of residents and staff, and on bringing the science of geriatrics and palliative care to criminal justice reform. She directs Amend, a training and leadership development program that draws on international correctional principles to give correctional leaders, staff, and policymakers new tools to transform prison culture. She is a founding co-director of the ARCH Network, an academic and community partnership working to expand research at the intersection of aging, serious illness and criminal justice involvement. Dr. Williams consults with prisons and legal organizations nationwide. She has served as an expert witness on the health effects of solitary confinement and her testimony to the US Sentencing Commission on proposed changes to Compassionate Release policies were later incorporated into the First Step Act.
She has developed new methods for responding to the unique health needs of criminal justice-involved older adults — including an evidence-based approach to reforming compassionate release policies and the design of a new tool to assess physical functioning in older prisoners. Dr. Williams served as a member of the Workshop on Incarceration and Health sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Her research has been supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Brookdale Foundation, the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, the National Palliative Care Research Center, the National Institute on Aging, the UC Office of the President and the Cambia Foundation.
Dr. Williams is the Founding Director of the UC Criminal Justice & Health Consortium, a UC-wide community of over 120 faculty and graduate students spanning more than 20 academic departments which brings evidence-based healthcare solutions to criminal justice reform. She directs the Criminal Justice Aging Project, which develops and delivers geriatrics and palliative care training to criminal justice professionals including police, correctional officers, judges, attorneys, and healthcare providers. Dr. Williams also runs the European-U.S. Criminal Justice Innovation Program, an immersion program that introduces U.S. prison and government officials to health-oriented criminal justice systems throughout Europe.
Dr. Williams has served as a consultant for jails, prisons and legal organizations nationwide, including the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the National ACLU. She has served as an expert witness in several lawsuits related to the physical health effects of solitary confinement. In 2016, Dr. Williams provided expert testimony to the US Sentencing Commission on proposed changes to Compassionate Release policies.
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