Fred Patrick

Our beloved colleague Fred Patrick, an advocate for justice as well as a friend and mentor to many, passed away suddenly of natural causes at his home in New York City on Monday, July 1.

Fred was the director of the Center on Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice, where he led his team to envision how a commitment to human dignity must be central even in prison, eliminate solitary confinement, reduce the use of jails, and increase access to public housing for people coming home from prison. There are thousands of people throughout the country who are thriving today because of Fred's work.

A son of Baton Rouge, LA, Tuskegee University, and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, Fred pursued a life of public service and generosity. Prior to joining Vera, Fred was an executive at both the Fortune Society, a reentry services organization, and NADAP, an agency providing workforce development and behavioral health services. He served as deputy commissioner for planning and programs at the NYC Department of Correction, commissioner of the NYC Juvenile Justice Department, and NYPD deputy commissioner for community affairs. Fred also served on the board of trustees of the Petey Greene Program, which advances education in prisons, jails and detention centers, the Fortune Society, which supports reentry from incarceration as well as alternatives to incarceration, and Wesleyan Center for Prison Education, which has brought the transformative power of the liberal arts into Connecticut's prisons.

He will be remembered by everyone at Vera not only for his passion and dedication to his work, but also for his kindness, his smile, his willingness to make time for anyone who needed his counsel, and his dedication to his family, his friends, his hometown, and the New Orleans Saints. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, and all those who knew him and loved him, as we did and will continue to do. We will miss him greatly and will honor his memory by continuing to fight as he did for justice.