Keynote Speakers

Monitoring and Restrictions

Scott VanBenschoten

Scott VanBenschoten has served at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) in Washington, D.C., since 2005. As a Probation Administrator at the AO, he developed national policies and procedures for the federal probation and pretrial services system in all areas of evidence-based practices and general supervision of federal offenders. Over the past two years, he has served as Chief of the Program Development Branch of the Probation and Pretrial Services Office at the AO.

Prior to his arrival at the AO, VanBenschoten served as the Assistant Director of the Chesterfield County, Virginia, Community Corrections Program. After earning his undergraduate degree in Sociology from Messiah College, he was awarded his M.S.W. from Virginia Commonwealth University and his M.P.A. from American University. He was the recipient of a three-year fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Interventions

Dr. Jennifer Skeem

Jennifer L. Skeem is the Mack Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean of Research in Social Welfare, and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a psychologist who writes and teaches about the intersection between behavioral science and the justice system. Her research is designed to inform legal decision-making about people with emotional and behavioral problems. Specific topics include improving outcomes for justice-involved people with mental illness, understanding psychopathic personality disorder, and promoting prosocial behavior among juveniles at high risk for violence. Skeem’s current work addresses a recent surge of interest in the use of risk assessment to inform criminal sentencing—including how this practice may affect racial and economic disparities in imprisonment.

Professor Skeem is an author of about 120 articles and chapters and editor of 2 books—including Applying Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending, which won the American Psychological Association Division 41 Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Psychology and Law. Skeem is past President of the American Psychology-Law Society, and member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment. She has served on advisory boards for the Council of State Governments Justice Center, U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts, and U.S. Sentencing Commission. Prior to arriving at Berkeley in 2014, she was a member of the faculty at the University of California, Irvine.