Job Description

Position: Criminal Justice Intern - Summer 2025

Reports To: Program Officer, Criminal Justice Team

Location: Chicago, Illinois (Hybrid)*

Duration: June 10 - August 13, 2025

Compensation: Paid Internship

About the Foundation:

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the nation's largest independent foundations. The Foundation boldly invests in creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future.

We work on a few big bets that strive toward transformative change in areas of profound concern, including the existential threats of climate change and nuclear risk, the challenges of criminal justice reform and revitalizing local news in the U.S. and corruption in Nigeria.

In addition, we maintain enduring commitments in our hometown Chicago, where we invest in people, places, and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.

We also make awards to extraordinarily creative individuals through the MacArthur Fellows program and for solutions to critical problems of our time through 100&Change. For more information, please visit our website is at www.macfound.org.  

About the Criminal Justice Program:

The summer intern will work with the Criminal Justice Team on the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), the Foundation’s initiative to address over-incarceration and eliminate racial disparities by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.

About the Internship:

• Support the team’s SJC Racial Equity Cohort, Leadership, and Women & Survivors work;

• Assist with projects related to the initiative’s online platform, the SJC Exchange;

• Participate in program development meetings and grant review discussions;

• Review grantee proposals, conduct background research, and provide feedback to the team;

• Review grantee reports and share observations;

• Conduct research projects and draft writing assignments as needed;

• Attend local stakeholder meetings and participate in Illinois/Chicago criminal justice efforts;

• Explore strategies to promote best practices in jail reduction and racial equity; and

• Perform other duties as assigned

In addition to these assignments, the intern will attend internal and external criminal justice meetings, and also attend staff events and in-house briefings by grantees, staff, and other practitioners.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate is a current undergraduate or graduate student with an interest and/or experience in social justice, criminal or civil rights law, public policy or administration, urban planning, public health or other related areas. Coursework or experience related to the intersection of criminal justice, policy, and race, with an understanding of the impact of historical and systemic racism on the current state of criminal justice in America is preferred. The successful applicant will have strong research, writing, and oral communications skills, have solid organizational and data management abilities, and be able to manage multiple projects. Applicants wh