Sarah is a PhD student in the Criminal Justice Department. She graduated from Temple University's 4+1 Accelerated M.A. program in Criminal Justice in May 2022. During her time at Temple, she worked as a research assistant, where she collaborated on a project to propose a conceptual model of site engagement in the field of implementation science. She also works with Temple's team on a national outcome evaluation project focusing on individuals sentenced to life without parole as juveniles who were given a second chance at freedom following the Supreme Court's landmark rulings in Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016). Her doctoral work examines legal decision-making in the context of cash bail reform in Philadelphia.
Throughout her time at Temple, in addition to serving as a teaching assistant, Sarah has also taught numerous undergraduate-level courses, including Criminal Courts & Criminal Justice (CJ2201) and Introduction to Criminal Law (CJ2501). Her commitment to teaching was recognized by Temple’s College of Liberal Arts when she was awarded the Graduate Student Teaching Award in February 2026.
Sarah’s research interests include criminal courts, pretrial justice, decision-making, and implementation science.
Faculty Advisor: Luis C. Torres
Publications
Torres, L. C., & Jones, S. D. (2026). Defense Counsel Type, Defendant Interventions, and Punishment in a Virtual Pretrial Courtroom. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 53(6), 838-855. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548251415012.
LaSane, T. F., Graves, C., & Jones, S. D. (2025). Finding Common Humanity: A Qualitative Study of Instructors’ Experiences Within the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511253.2025.2585889.
Jones, S. D., Bartkowski, J. P., Belenko, S., Becan, J. E., Taxman, F. S., Wasserman, G. A., Aarons, G. A., McReynolds, L. S., Dolbear, C., Xu, X. (2025). Site engagement in implementation research: Introducing SEAMLIS as a conceptual and measurement framework. Health & Justice, 13, Article 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-025-00349-1.
Jones, S. D. (2025). Prosecutor-led bail reform: An observational case study in Philadelphia. Law & Policy, 47(1), Article e12260. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12260.