Michelle Phelps is a Professor of Sociology and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing on the turn toward “tough” punishment after the mid-20th century. Another line of research investigates the health consequences of community supervision on vulnerable adults, families, and communities. Finally, she has written on the history and present-day of policing in Minneapolis with a focus on the implications of policing practices on racial inequalities. She is the co-author of Breaking the Pendulum: The Long Struggle Over Criminal Justice (Oxford, 2017), with Philip Goodman and Joshua Page, as well as the author of The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America (Princeton, 2024).