Caity Curry uses qualitative methods to investigate how the criminal legal system exacerbates and legitimizes racial and class inequalities, focusing specifically on how legal professionals and impacted community members experience and resist mass criminalization in their daily lives.

Their dissertation examines the role of public defenders in criminal justice reform and transformation, using a multi-method case study of Gideon’s Promise, an Atlanta-based public defense organization that trains defenders to resist mass incarceration. The results lay critical groundwork for research on public defense and penal change, unmasking both the organizational context and individual struggles of progressive criminal defense in the U.S. South.

Caity also works with Minnesota organizations that seek to dismantle mass criminalization and support people with criminal records including All Square, Minnesota Justice Research Center, and Children of Incarcerated Caregivers.

Caity has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Arkansas and an M.A. from the University of Minnesota.