Sharon . Brett
Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School
Sharon Brett is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School, where she works on research and policy advocacy related to the criminal legal system and taught a policy seminar on race, class, and criminal punishment. Prior to joining CJPP, Sharon was a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, where she focused on complex investigations and impact litigation regarding police misconduct and unlawful conditions in prisons and jails. In that role, Sharon spearheaded several pattern or practice investigations of law enforcement agencies, and worked closely with jurisdictions to develop and implement changes to their law enforcement and correctional practices. Most notably, Sharon was one of the lead attorneys for DOJ's investigation of the Chicago Police Department, and worked on a small team of attorneys implementing the consent decree regarding police misconduct and abusive court practices in Ferguson, Missouri. Sharon graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, and with honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable John M. Facciola (ret.) of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia. In July 2020, Sharon will become a Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, where she will return to litigation on a range of civil rights and liberties matters, with a special focus on cases addressing systemic injustice in criminal legal systems.
06/20
