I am a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where I focus on the intersection of criminal justice, health, and race. Through the lens and tools of an economist, I aim to provide an empirical guide for understanding questions and tradeoffs related to legal and health systems, while exploring the impacts of policies intended to ameliorate them. Some of my work has explored the social costs of policing, investigated racial disparities in police interactions, and examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated policies affected the criminal justice system.

My research has been featured in numerous media outlets, such as Bloomberg, the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vox, and has been regularly cited in policy discourse, both by local and state agencies in California and in legislation (see Research tab). My research has been supported by Stand Together Trust, Arnold Ventures, Berkeley Law's Center for the Study of Law and Society, and the Horowitz Foundation. I received my Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2020.

Google Scholar; Email: premkumar@ppic.org