Erin Keith

Background

About Erin Keith

Erin Keith, Esq. serves as a Program Officer at the Navigation Fund, leading the organization's national portfolio for Transforming Criminal Justice. Before this role, Erin served as Managing Policy Counsel for the Detroit Justice Center (DJC), where she led the organization’s advocacy strategy. Her work included authoring and analyzing legislation, serving on statewide policy coalitions, liaising between DJC and government officials, and providing movement lawyering support to organizing campaigns. Erin has worked on critical issues, including cash bail reform, restorative justice accessibility, divesting from incarceration to fund community reinvestment and police accountability. Erin also formerly served as a staff attorney in DJC's Legal Services and Advocacy Practice, representing indigent and/or formerly incarcerated individuals to remove legal barriers. This advocacy included assisting clients with clearing outstanding warrants to avoid pretrial detention, regaining custodial rights and clearing child support debt after periods of incarceration, and reducing exorbitant fines and fees. Such work also involved traveling to Michigan prisons to help paroling individuals create legal reentry plans to prevent recidivism. Additionally, in this role, Erin served as co-counsel on a national COVID lawsuit aimed at improving conditions at the Wayne County Jail. This advocacy expedited the pretrial release of low-bail and immunocompromised individuals, ensured access to masks, showers and adequate cleaning materials, and helped to lessen the spread of the virus among those detained. Before joining DJC, Erin began her career as a Juvenile Defense and Policy Fellow for Georgetown’s Juvenile Justice Initiative, where she focused her policy research, legal advocacy, and project development on the intersection of race and gender to promote culturally responsive, youth-led juvenile justice reform. In addition, Erin has shared her perspectives on various outlets, including CNN, NPR, WDET, and USA Today. She has also been published in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy. Erin graduated summa cum laude from Howard University with her B.A. in Political Science and from Georgetown Law with her J.D. and LL.M. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the District of Columbia Bar.