Episode 11: Meaghan Ybos - People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws

Meaghan is the co-founder and Executive Director of PERL. In 2003 at the age of sixteen, Meaghan was raped in Memphis.  She reported her rape to law enforcement and submitted to a forensic exam, but law enforcement did not investigate the case or test her rape kit until over nine years later. Meaghan strategically used her mishandled rape case to raise awareness about needed policy changes. In the course of this work, Meaghan further exposed over 12,000 untested rape kits in MPD storage.  In 2013 and 2014, over the Memphis mayor’s objections, Meaghan successfully persuaded the Memphis City Council to allocate over $3 million of its own tax revenue to cover the costs of investigating thousands of previously ignored rape cases connected to untested rape kits. In 2015, Meaghan and a group of lawyers and community organizers formed PERL which advocates for criminal justice reform and provides the community’s only peer support for people who have experienced sexual violence. She is also a contributing writer at The Appeal, part of the Harvard University School of Law’s Fair Punishment Project. Meaghan holds a BA in English from Rhodes College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi.