# Vera Institute of Justice

The Vera Institute of Justice (originally the Vera Foundation) is a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank focused on criminal justice reform. It was founded in 1961 in New York City.

## Founding

Philanthropist Louis Schweitzer created the Vera Foundation—named after his mother—in New York City in 1961, after being told by a friend that 2,000 boys had been in a Brooklyn jail for over 10 months, waiting for trial. Initially, Schweitzer intended to lend bail money to those too poor to afford it. Instead, with Herbert Sturz as founding director, the foundation began the Manhattan Bail Project.
The Vera Foundation became the Vera Institute of Justice in 1966, with Burke Marshall, a former United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, as chairman of the board, to administer a $1.1 million grant from the Ford Foundation.

## Activities

The Vera Institute conducts research, demonstration projects, reform initiatives, and technical support in the area of criminal justice.

### Manhattan Bail Project

The Manhattan Bail Project, with Sturz as executive director and in cooperation with the New York University School of Law, worked to reform the bail bond system. The project supplied New York City judges with defendant background information and recommendations as to whether to release without bond. In a three-year experiment, thousands were released and only a small number failed to appear for trial. New York City officially adopted the process in 1964. With the project's success, several other jurisdictions across the country began to implement pretrial services programs. It led to the Bail Reform Act of 1966, signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson, who called the Vera Institute's work an example of what "one man's outrage against injustice" could accomplish.

### Prison commission

The Vera Institute of Justice organized the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, to study issues relating to prison violence and abuse. The commission was co-chaired by former US Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and former judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, John Joseph Gibbons. On June 8, 2006, the commission released its report to the US Congress recommending more attention be given to address problems of violence, insufficient mental health treatment, and health care in prisons. At a broader level, the commission criticized US policy towards incarceration as costly and ineffective.

## Funding and support

The Vera Institute Of Justice operates as a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For fiscal year 2023, revenue was $263,167,197 against expenses of $262,476,408.
In 1966, the Vera Institute of Justice received assistance from the Ford Foundation to turn the foundation into a private nonprofit organization.
The MacArthur Foundation awarded the Vera Institute $15,601,707 between 1989 and 2021, including 20 grants in Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice.
In March 2022, the Vera Institute of Justice received a $171.7 million government contract (that could reach as high as $983 million if the contract is extended to March 2027) to provide unaccompanied migrant children legal assistance.