Jay Jenkins
Prior to joining Wren, Jay worked as the Harris County Project Attorney at the Texas Center for Justice & Equity. At TCJE, Jay researched and pursued reforms related to over-policing and prosecution, while also reimagining the local bail system and supporting indigent defense. Working with a local data firm, he developed a first-of-its-kind data dashboard that visualized more than one million criminal case outcomes in Harris, Dallas, Bexar, and Travis Counties. Jay’s work for TCJE in Houston also included advising stakeholders and elected officials on policy matters and exposing corruption in the indigent defense and juvenile justice systems.
Jay’s work on corruption in Harris County’s indigent defense system includes co-authoring Pay to Play: Campaign Finance and the Incentive Gap in the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, an analysis of the corruption in Harris County’s indigent defense system published in the Duke Law Journal in 2021. Jay has also previously published reports on the inefficacy of Texas drug policy and inaccurate coverage of the justice system in local media. His writing has also been featured in Houston Lawyer Magazine and the Houston Chronicle.
In addition to supervising internships for interested local high school students, Jay has had college students from across the country serve as interns, including students from North Carolina A&T University. At Rice University, Jay has taught students in Rice’s legal practicum program since 2016 and led multiple research projects while partnering with Rice’s Center for Civic Leadership. Since 2022, Jay has been the lead community partner on two yearlong social policy analysis projects with Rice’s Political Science department, each focusing on inequities in Harris County’s bail system. Lastly, Jay has partnered with Rice’s Leadership Rice Mentorship Experience (LRME) Program to mentor summer interns from Rice for the past four years.
Jay presently serves as President of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project, which he co-founded with the late Reginald Moore in 2018 to expose the local history of the convict leasing system and its connection to modern prison slavery. He previously served on the Board of Directors for L.I.F.E. Houston, a nonprofit dedicated to providing formula and other supplies for infants and families in need.
Jay received his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law, graduating magna cum laude and receiving the Public Service Honor Roll Award in 2009. Jay graduated from Wake Forest University in 2005, majoring in Biology and Classical Languages.