Doug Smith

Doug Smith is a Criminal Justice Policy Analyst with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition where he develops policies to reduce the state’s over-reliance on incarceration and improve conditions of confinement and reentry for people leaving prison. He also serves as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, teaching Advanced Policy. Doug graduated magna cum laude from St. Edward’s University in 1994 and earned his M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. He previously served as a Policy Analyst in the Texas House of Representatives’ Committee on Human Services, as well as a Legislative Director for a member of the House. Doug’s passion for criminal justice reform stems from his own experience in the criminal justice system, where he served six years in prison for crimes committed as a direct outcome of addiction and mental illness.

In addition to his state-level advocacy work with TCJC, Doug serves on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Reentry Taskforce and the Austin/Travis County Reentry Roundtable. He serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Austin Sobering Center and is a Board Member at the Texas Research Society on Alcoholism and Addiction.