Marc M. Howard is one of the country’s leading voices and advocates for restoring humanity to the American criminal punishment system. He is a Professor of Government and Law and the Director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) at Georgetown University, which he founded in 2016. Under Howard's leadership, PJI provides educational opportunities for incarcerated people, hosts reentry programs for returning citizens, and seeks to free the wrongfully convicted. With its Georgetown and DC Government partners, PJI runs the Pivot Program for formerly incarcerated women and men to become entrepreneurs and business leaders, the Paralegal Program for formerly incarcerated jailhouse lawyers to become certified paralegals who are employed by major DC law firms and legal organizations, and the Prison Scholars Program , which offers both credit-bearing and non-credit courses to incarcerated students at the DC Jail, as well as a Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at the Patuxent Institution in Maryland.
Howard is also the Founder and President of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice , a non-profit organization that allows members of free society to connect with people in prisons in order to discover firsthand our common humanity and advocate for systemic change.
Howard’s scholarly research addresses the deep challenges of contemporary democracy and the tragedy of criminal justice and prisons in America. The author of three books and dozens of academic articles, his work has received numerous awards. His most recent book is Unusually Cruel: Prisons, Punishment, and the Real American Exceptionalism .
Howard is also a prize-winning teacher who recently received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers , the Provost's Innovation in Teaching Award and the American Political Science Association’s Distinguished Award for Civic and Community Engagement. “Prisons and Punishment” has become one of the most popular courses at Georgetown. “The Forgotten Humanity of Prisoners” takes place at the DC Jail and brings “outside” and “inside” students together in a common classroom .
The students in “Making an Exoneree ” — co-taught with his childhood friend, Marty Tankleff , who was himself wrongfully imprisoned for almost 18 years — re-investigate likely wrongful conviction cases and create documentaries that suggest innocence and advocate for exonerations and prison releases. Their project has already contributed to the freedom of Valentino Dixon , Eric Riddick , Keith Washington , Arlando “Tray” Jones III , Kenneth Bond , Muti Ajamu-Osagboro , and Terrel Barros , with more to come.
Howard has also written for a broader popular audience, including op-eds in major newspapers such as the New York Times (in 2020 , 2017 , and 2006 ), Washington Post , and USA Today , along with short articles about the life lessons of sports in Tennis Magazine and Sports Illustrated . He has hosted events with celebrities such as the rapper Meek Mill . And he was featured in a documentary alongside Kim Kardashian , who visited the DC Jail with him.
Howard received his B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from Georgetown University.
For more, see his website: http://www.marcmhoward.org/