Michelle Phelps

My research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing in particular on the punitive turn in the U.S. Much of her work focuses on the rise of probation supervision as a criminal justice sanction and its relationship to mass incarceration. I have aslo also examined a variety of criminal justice topics, including changes in rehabilitative programming in U.S. prisons since the 1970s and the recent decarceration trend and its implications for inequality. Together with Prof. Joshua Page and Philip Goodman, I am the author of Breaking the Pendulum: The Long Struggle Over Criminal Justice. My new projects focus on policing, police reform, and community supervision and health.