Anne Milgram

Anne Milgram is an American attorney, politician, legal thinker, and academic. As 57th Attorney General of New Jersey from 2007 to 2010,^[1] she reformed the Camden Police Department and injected data and evidence into decisions about how to fight crime and make communities safer.

Milgram is currently a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law.^[2] Most recently, she was the founding head of the Criminal Justice Initiative at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.^[3]

Milgram began her career as a state, federal, and local prosecutor. Today, her work focuses on re-inventing the criminal justice system through the strategic employment of smart data, analytics, and technology.

She serves as a member of the Covenant House International Board of Directors, the National Center for State Courts Board of Directors, and the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution Advisory Board. Milgram is a former TED speaker and published author. She has received the United States Department of Justice Director’s Award, and the Department of Justice Special Commendation for Outstanding Service.

Early Life and Education

Milgram grew up in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey.^[4]

She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers College in 1992 with a degree in English and Political Science, where she was also a member of the Cap and Skull Senior Honor Society.

She earned her Master of Philosophy in social and political theory from the University of Cambridge in 1993 and subsequently received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1996.^[5]

Early career

Milgram clerked for United States District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton, from 1996 to 1997.^[5]

In 1997, she began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Milgram later worked in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, where she served as the Special Litigation Counsel for Human Trafficking and led the Department’s human trafficking prosecutions. Milgram was counsel to Senator Jon Corzine during his final year in the United States Senate.^[5]

Attorney General of New Jersey

Milgram became Acting Attorney General on September 1, 2006, following the resignation of former Attorney General Zulima Farber.^[6]

From 2007 to 2010, Milgram served as New Jersey’s Attorney General,^[7] where she led the 9,000-person Department of Law & Public Safety. She was New Jersey’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer. In that capacity, she directed the State Division of Criminal Justice and had oversight responsibility for the prosecutors and nearly 30,000 local law enforcement officers statewide. Milgram led investigations into street gangs, violent crime, public corruption, securities fraud and organized crime. She implemented a statewide initiative to improve public safety and reduce violent crime through crime prevention, law enforcement, and re-entry. She also oversaw and reformed the Camden Police Department. In doing so she reduced murders in Camden, NJ by 41% and all crime by 26%.

Intergovernmental Cooperation

In 2007, Milgram announced a partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) to allow New Jersey to trace the sources of illegal firearms through real-time electronic access to BATF’s E-Trace system, a nationwide data base that lists a firearm’s first purchaser, date of purchase, and the retailer from which the gun was purchased. As Attorney General, Milgram directed all police departments in New Jersey to forward all gun tracing information to E-trace to build a New Jersey database.^[8]

Arnold Foundation

Milgram has championed the use of smart data, analytics, and technology as a way to reinvent the criminal justice system. At the Arnold foundation, she led the creation, development and national implementation of a new pretrial risk assessment tool to provide judges with more information for when they decide whether to release or jail people who have been arrested.^[9]

In addition to developing the Public Safety Risk Assessment tool, Milgram spearheaded more than $55 million in philanthropic grants and operational projects. This included significant efforts to: shift the national focus from the back end of the criminal justice system (probation, parole, and reentry) to the front end of the system (pretrial); expand the research base for criminal justice; create state and local criminal data warehouses; work cross-sector to combine crime, health, education, housing and social service data to identify and test new areas of intervention and diversion; and develop a broader strategy for national criminal justice reform.^[10]

Efforts to Transform the United States Criminal Justice System

Milgram is presently a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law, where she is building a Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, dedicated to using data and technology to transform the American criminal justice system. She teaches seminars on criminal justice policy and human trafficking.

Media

In October 2013, Milgram gave a Ted Talk, “Why smart statistics are the key to fighting crime.”^[11] As of 2016, the talk has gained almost 800,000 views.

She is also technical advisor on criminal prosecutions for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.^[12]

Personal life

Anne Milgram resides in New York City with her husband and son.

References

External links

• Official bio
• Anne Milgram at TED
  

Attorneys General of New Jersey (Since 1947 State Constitution)
Parsons Richman Furman Sills Kugler Hyland Degnan Zazzali Kimmelman Edwards Perretti Del Tufo Poritz Verniero Farmer Samson Harvey Farber Rabner Milgram Dow Chiesa Hoffman (Acting) Lougy (Acting) Porrino