Jeremiah Bourgeois, J.D.
My passion for working to make the criminal legal system more effective stems from serving 27 years in prison as a juvenile lifer. During my confinement, I earned an undergraduate degree through distance learning, taught myself the law, and published multiple articles in law journals. I also became a regular columnist for criminal justice news outlets. Four years after being paroled in 2019, I graduated from Gonzaga Law School and currently serve as a judicial law clerk on the Washington Court of Appeals. I have worked with a variety of stakeholders, from prosecutors and defenders to private prison corporations. In 2024, I became the first formerly incarcerated person appointed to the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission. My various lived experiences allow me to consult on a myriad of projects, including policy and program development, sentence mitigation, and post-conviction assistance.
Esther Matthews, Ph.D.
I use my lived experience in the criminal legal system, along with my academic training, to provide a rich, authentic, and humane understanding of the system. I hold a B.S. in Political Science, from Oregon State University, as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in Justice Law and Criminology, from American University. As a former Assistant Professor of Criminology at Gonzaga University, I am well versed in the field of education, from designing curriculum, programs, and trainings to planning and hosting symposiums or panels. On the research side, I have conducted research inside eight juvenile and adult detention facilities in three different states and evaluated programs for various reentry organizations. I have a keen interest in organizational behavior and implementation science. You must truly understand the system – and its unique characteristics – if you hope to improve it. My experience as a Juvenile Rehabilitation Researcher for the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families. taught me that you have to speak to people within a system to truly understand it. Hence, most of my research involves focus groups, surveys and interviews of people living and working in criminal legal settings. My findings have been published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and Incarceration, as well as The Washington Post. I have served as an expert for various government agencies, organizations, courts, and media outlets. I currently serve the State of Washington as a member of the Sentencing Guidelines Committee and the Jail Modernization Task Force.
