Clementine Jacoby

Jacoby joined Google where she worked on augmented mobile games.^[2][3] She became increasingly concerned about the high numbers of people imprisoned in the United States.^[4][5] In particular, she looked for low-cost solutions to mass incarceration.^[6] Of the 2.5 million incarcerated Americans, hundreds of thousands pose no risk to public safety. One in four prison admissions occur not because someone committed a crime but because they violated rules whilst on supervision.^[7] However, the data required to free them from prison is often distributed across several departments. Jacoby's work looks to make real-time data available for justice agencies and, ultimately, reduce recidivism.^[1]

Jacoby is the Founder and executive director of Recidiviz,^[2][8] a nonprofit platform that allows states to collect, clean, standardize and share fragmented data.^[7][9] It collects data from prisons, probation and parole. Recidiviz makes use of an algorithm to recommend people for early release, so-called smart decarceration.^[2] In the two years following its launch, Recidiviz was responsible for the release of over 40,000 inmates.^[4]

As COVID-19 spread through prison populations,^[10] North Dakota made use of Recidiviz to identify inmates who were eligible for release. In one month, prison populations in North Dakota were reduced by 25%.^[11] Jacoby partnered with the Charles Koch Institute to expand Recidiviz to 15 states.^[2]

• 2020 Fast Company's Most Creative People^[12]
• 2021 TIME100 NEXT^[4]
• 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30^[13]
• 2022 Appointed TED fellow^[14]