Alvin J. Bronstein

Who is Alvin J. Bronstein?

Alvin J. Bronstein is an American lawyer, and founder and Director Emeritus of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation. According to his ACLU biography, 'he has argued numerous prisoners’ rights cases in federal trial and appellate courts as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He has been a consultant to state and federal correctional agencies, has appeared as an expert witness on numerous occasions and has edited or authored books and articles on human rights and corrections.'

He began his career working in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement, becoming the Chief Staff Counsel of the Lawyers’ Constitutional Defense Committee from 1964 to 1968 in Jackson, Mississippi. He litigated civil rights cases during that time in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, and represented the major civil rights organizations in the South. He was a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, from 1969 to 1971. He was Pace Law School’s Practitioner-in-Residence in 2009.

He served as the director of the National Prison Project from 1972 until 1995.