Joanna Cardenas
Special Assistant

Joanna joined the Prison Law Office in 2022. At PLO, she assists in monitoring staff misconduct investigations in California state prisons under Armstrong v. Newsom. Currently, Joanna is also a doctoral student in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. As a PhD candidate, she has conducted research related to police use of lethal force, police misconduct, surveillance, and the sociology of punishment across race, gender, and class. Her work has been supported by several fellowships and organizations, including Berkeley’s School of Law. Prior to graduate school, she received a dual B.A. in African American Studies and Legal Studies with honors from UC Berkeley in 2021.