Zachary Witman was sentenced as a young person in Pennsylvania and is now passionate about criminal justice reform.
Upon entering the prison system when he was twenty years old, Zachary became a tutor and teacher’s aide in an Adult Basic Education classroom—where he contributed to dozens of men earning their GEDs. His time spent in this setting encouraged him to pursue his own education, beginning his college career in prison by taking correspondence courses through Ohio University’s Correctional Education Program.
After his release, Zachary earned an associate degree in Paralegal Studies from Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), graduating as a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society member and a HACC Honors Program Scholar in December 2021. He has since used his experience and knowledge to work with such organizations as Straight Ahead, the Lancaster County Reentry Coalition, and the Lancaster Bail Fund to advocate for comprehensive changes to the criminal justice system.
Zachary moved to New York in 2022 to join the Justice-in-Education Scholars program at Columbia. He also completed the Paralegal Pathways Initiative at Columbia Law School and has interned for the Criminal Justice Reform Alliance and the Legal Aid Society. He is currently a student in the School of General Studies at Columbia, where he studies philosophy and linguistics in order to better understand how concepts such as logic, ethics, moral reasoning, and linguistic structure shape the development and application of our laws. He is expected to graduate in February 2027.
As a LLAW Fellow, Zachary hopes to combine his lived experience, legal training, and academic interests to help make the law more understandable and accessible to those most affected by it. He is especially committed to supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in understanding their rights and navigating legal systems that often feel confusing, technical, and out of reach. Through this work, he hopes to contribute to a broader vision of criminal justice reform grounded not only in policy change, but also in education, dignity, and meaningful access to justice.