Ben Finholt

Ben Finholt is the Director of the Second Chances and Legal Advocacy team at the Wilson Center. Ben began his second chances work as a staff attorney at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, where he spent nine years litigating civil conditions of confinement and criminal post-conviction cases. The Second Chances team seeks to increase awareness of extreme sentencing, reduce long-term incarceration, and promote fair outcomes through data analysis, collaboration with stakeholders, and strategic litigation.

Ben is working to build a comprehensive database of North Carolina imprisonment and is the primary source for attorneys seeking information about people incarcerated in North Carolina prisons. He researches extreme punishment and regularly consults with North Carolina agencies on second chance policies. He currently represents people seeking post-conviction relief through a variety of mechanisms, including parole, clemency, habeas, and motions for appropriate relief.

Ben supervises six research assistants each year and is one of two faculty supervisors for the Duke Decarceration Project (DDP), a law-student led initiative that works to reduce the number of North Carolinians in prisons and jails through advocacy and education. With both groups, Ben provides legal services to people who would otherwise not be entitled to them.

Ben received his B.A. from Williams College and his J.D. from the University of Iowa. In a prior life, he was a high school math teacher.