Riley Evans
Riley Doyle Evans is a JD Candidate at Harvard Law School. Prior to law school, Riley’s career focused on advocating for the dignity of people held in prisons and jails. Riley worked at the Prison Law Office in California for several years, supporting class action litigation challenging unconstitutional conditions in state prisons. He went on to establish and lead the Jail Services Division at Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defender agency in New York City. In this role, Riley worked directly with clients detained on Rikers Island to secure their rights to medical care, safety, and humane treatment. He also engaged in broader advocacy efforts, for example to reform cash bail and abolish solitary confinement. Before attending law school, Riley lived in Germany where he obtained an LL.M. in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; his thesis documented the failure of human rights institutions to protect people deprived of liberty from the torture of prolonged solitary confinement. Upon completing his Masters degree, Riley helped to found Tatort Zukunft, a non-profit offering programs in Berlin prisons and advocating for humane, just and effective responses to crime in Germany.
