Carl Stoffers (born October 18, 1975) is an American writer, editor, reporter, and former law enforcement officer.
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Early Life and Education
Stoffers was born in Livingston, New Jersey. He was raised primarily in Westfield , New Jersey where he resided with his paternal grandparents. Stoffers graduated from Westfield High School in 1993. He attended Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey.
After moving to Phoenix, Arizona in his late twenties, he was hired by the Arizona Department of Corrections, and spent several years as a correctional officer in the state's toughest prison, ASPC-Lewis. While working for the department of corrections, he grew disillusioned with the criminal justice system and eventually moved back to his native New Jersey to pursue a career in journalism.
Stoffers graduated summa cum laude from Kean University in Union, New Jersey in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in communication.
He graduated with honors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2015.
Career
Stoffers completed a post-graduate fellowship at The Marshall Project before being hired by the New York Daily News. His work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Vice, the Los Angeles Times, the Courier News, Home News-Tribune, Asbury Park Press, the Garden State Journal, and other publications.
In June 2015, he was publicly criticized by Piper Kerman, author of the book-turned tv-series "Orange is the New Black" over a story he wrote that 'fact checked' the show's premier against his personal experiences as a correctional officer.
Based on his background as a journalist and former correctional officer, he was asked to speak at Princeton University's S.P.E.A.R. (Students for Prison Education and Reform) Conference in 2015. He lectured on how to overcome the police subculture and bring reform to the criminal justice system.
In 2016, he was named associate editor of The New York Times Upfront magazine.