Bio
Ilyana Benjelloun was a paralegal at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. As a college student, Ilyana co-founded the Justice Impact Movement at Yale’s Undergraduate Prison Project, a student-led group dedicated to removing barriers to entry to higher education for justice-impacted individuals. There, she organised around bills in Connecticut’s General Assembly and was influential in getting Yale to change some of its application questions inquiring about candidates’ criminal histories. Her past experiences included interning at the ACLU’s National Prison Project; writing for Mourning Our Losses, a crowd-sourced memorial to remember and raise awareness of the lives lost to COVID-19 behind bars; and working as a research assistant for Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory, where she examined prosecutorial policies and procedural justice practices. When she was not working at the ACLU, Ily could be found hosting dinner parties, crocheting, or running around Prospect Park. Ilyana is from London and graduated cum laude from Yale University with a degree in Philosophy and Cognitive Science.