Meredith Desautels is an attorney and fellow with the Youth Justice unit at Bay Area Legal Aid. Funded through the Rosenberg Foundation's Leading Edge Fellowship, Meredith's work focuses on strategies for reducing youth incarceration in juvenile halls and camps. Prior to joining Bay Area Legal Aid, Meredith spent several months of her fellowship representing youth in delinquency proceedings through the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. Meredith was previously a staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she used litigation and legislative strategies to advance civil rights and racial justice in the criminal justice system. She also directed the Lawyers' Committee's Second Chance Legal Clinic, which provides free legal services to people facing barriers due to a past criminal record. Meredith clerked for Judge Noonan on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and is a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law.