Dana Bazelon
Lecturer in Law
Dana Bazelon is a Policy Director to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the Supervisor of the Early Bail Review Program.
Bazelon drafts and helps to implements policies to realize the DA’s agenda of criminal justice reform, including ending cash bail for minor offenses, reducing the jail population, no longer charging or diverting minor offenses, and removing barriers for individuals seeking expungement.
Bazelon graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2007 and went on to clerk for the Honorable Michael M. Baylson in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She spent three years working as at the Philadelphia Public Defender before going into private practice, where she specialized in civil rights litigation and federal criminal defense. In 2018, Bazelon joined Krasner’s administration. She is a lifelong Philadelphian.
Krasner’s election as the District Attorney in Philadelphia has provided a unique opportunity to change a system in desperate need of reform. Only a few years ago, Philadelphia was the most incarcerated of America’s 10 largest cities with the highest number of juvenile offenders sentenced to life without parole, with the third largest number, per capita, of people on probation or parole. Krasner and his team have sought to provide a model for how to reverse some of these trends, while effectively prosecuting serious crime.