Maya Chaudhuri

The Project

Maya (she/her/hers) investigates and assists with affirmative litigation to vindicate the rights of people experiencing human rights abuses in Georgia prisons and jails, and work on community-based non-litigation approaches to these harms.

Georgia has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the United States. Conditions of confinement in many of Georgia’s jails and prisons have deteriorated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic such that incarcerated people are experiencing violations of their human rights. Black and Latine Georgians are overrepresented in Georgia’s prisons and jails, and therefore more likely to be impacted by the significant decline in conditions of confinement that incarcerated people are experiencing.

Maya’s time as an investigator working on advocacy and litigation around criminal courts in the South drives her commitment to open courts, which are an essential step toward empowering communities to enact change in local criminal legal systems. She is passionate about challenging injustices at the intersection of race and poverty in the criminal legal system.

Fellowship Plans

Maya will work with attorneys and investigators to investigate conditions of confinement at facilities in Georgia through interviews with incarcerated people and record requests. Maya will work with the legal and policy teams to identify strategies to curb the human rights abuses people are experiencing and increase decarceration efforts, including supporting movement led work. Maya will also work with a team of data experts to identify the racial disparities present in the carceral system in Georgia.

Media