Tony Fabelo, PhD

Dr. Tony Fabelo is a Senior Fellow for Justice Policy with the Meadows Institute and serves as Director of Research at the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments in Austin. Dr. Fabelo has nearly 40 years of experience working in Texas and nationally on adult and juvenile justice system improvements and was the executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council from 1991-2003. Since 1984, he has worked in various capacities for five Texas governors and 18 regular biennial Texas legislatures.

His work on correctional system reforms in Texas and six other states as part of the Justice Reinvestment initiative has distinguished him as a national leader. He served in 2010-2016 in the US Department of Justice Science Advisory Board. He was appointed to a National Academy of Sciences panel that, in 2014, issued a report on the consequences of high incarceration rates. In 1998 he was also a member of the National Academy of Science panel that issued two reports on juvenile crime and juvenile justice issues.

In 2015 he completed the most comprehensive review ever done of outcomes in the Texas juvenile justice system involving the analysis of close to one million records of delinquent youths. He co-authored The Closer to Home report that served as a guide for major reforms in the Texas juvenile system in 2015. That same year he received the Texas District and County Attorney Association’s distinguished service award. His work with county leaders and statewide groups to tailor county-specific solutions to very complex justice and mental health system problems has had and continues to have a significant impact across Texas.