Marayca Lopez
Justice and Civic Planning Leader, DLR Group, United States
Dr. Lopez is an expert consultant of distinguished ability and accomplishment in the field of correctional systems and prison reform with an extensive education and international background in penology and criminology. Having exclusively dedicated her academic and professional careers to the justice sector, Marayca possesses a keen understanding of the overall criminal justice system and, more specifically, of correctional systems for both justice-involved youth and adult offenders.
Marayca’s body of work is international in scope. She has participated in a wide array of criminal justice reform projects and prison studies both in the USA and abroad (e.g. Australia, Canada, Europe, Central and South America), resulting in worldwide expertise and a deep understanding of correctional best practices, prison operations and innovative models for offender management and intervention. Marayca’s years of academic pursuit and practical application in the field of corrections have helped to nurture and refine her research and analytical skills, which are critical for criminal justice strategic planning. For the last 14 years, Marayca served as Senior Corrections Analyst and Justice Facility Planner for CGL, a preeminent justice services firm based in New York. As an authority on criminal justice matters and prisons operations, she helped to plan and program correctional facilities that are holistic in their approach, preserve human rights, promote rehabilitation and treatment, are safe and humane, and focused on innovative operational and programmatic models for positive behavioral change and successful re-entry.
Dr. Lopez areas of expertise include the development of system-wide needs assessments; policy and criminal justice data analysis; inmate population forecasting; design of alternatives to incarceration programs; organizational/cultural assessments; existing buildings functional and operational assessments; planning of new justice facilities, transition and activation services. She is an active member of the International Corrections and Prison’s Association’s (ICPA) Planning and Design Committee and has an on-going collaboration with the Correctional Association of New York (Women in Prison Project), the United Nations Friends of Corrections, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Penal Reform International (PRI) on issues related to the humanization of prisons, monitoring of incarceration practices and improvement of detention conditions She is a frequent speaker and/or lecturer in a variety of academic, professional, and international forums.
In recognition of the impact that her work has had improving life in prison through the built environment, Marayca has been recently nominated by the AIA’s Academy of Architecture for Justice to join the Leadership Group in 2021.
