My research examines the relationship between democracy, political legitimacy, and total institutions. I study prisons, courts, hospitals, and residential schools to understand how authority is exercised over people who are governed but only partially included in the political community.
Across this work, I return to a recurring question: What becomes of self-government when someone is judged not yet, or no longer, capable of it — in prisons, hospitals, and schools alike? My scholarship sits at the intersection of law and society and political theory.
Start here
- Book: Democracy in Captivity (2023).
A study of why participatory reforms inside prisons and hospitals often promise self-rule while leaving structures of domination intact. - Prison governance: On Prison Democracy (2018).
A theory-driven account of why “participation” inside prisons can blur the line between democratization and managed compliance. - Democracy & punishment policy: Must Penal Law Be Insulated from Public Influence? (2021).
Examines when democratic responsiveness to public opinion threatens the legitimacy of criminal law. - Accountability & private power: The Submerged Prison State (2024).
Shows how administrative pathways and private actors shape punishment while evading democratic oversight.
Research themes
My work clusters around several overlapping problems. Each link goes to a page with a short overview, citation information, and access options.
Democracy under custody
- On Prison Democracy — When participation exists without accountability, democracy risks becoming administrative theater.
- Democracy in Captivity — A broader theory of why inclusion inside coercive institutions often stabilizes rather than challenges authority.
Public influence, legitimacy, and penal authority
- Must Penal Law Be Insulated from Public Influence? — Questions whether insulating punishment from democratic input can be reconciled with political legitimacy.
- The Submerged Prison State — Reorients debates about mass incarceration toward hidden structures of governance and responsibility.
- Incarceration and Deservingness: Experimental Evidence on Less Eligibility — Tests claims about how the public reasons about prison reform
Childhood, responsibility, and constitutional punishment
- Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama — Argues that developmental psychology cannot bear the full normative weight of juvenile sentencing doctrine.
- Reply — My reply to authors in a symposium around my paper on Miller, clarifies the democratic stakes of grounding constitutional protection in developmental expertise
Youth institutions, identity, and governance
- Between Worlds — Explores how residential intervention produces ambivalence as young people navigate competing cultural expectations.
- At Risk — A forthcoming book on how institutions reproduce and attempt to repair childhood disadvantage.
- Scripted Intimacy: How institutions make intimacy governable — brings together ethnographic research to show how a residential institution scripts family-like care for at-risk youth
Books
- Democracy in Captivity (UC Press, 2023).
A theory of self-government in prisons and hospitals and what it reveals about democratic inclusion more broadly. - At Risk (under contract).
Investigates the political and moral logics of contemporary efforts to manage vulnerable youth.
Articles
- “Between Worlds.” Identity formation and ambivalence in a boarding school for “at-risk” youth.
- “The Submerged Prison State.” Private influence and hidden governance in punishment policy.
- “Must Penal Law Be Insulated from Public Influence?” Democratic authority, expertise, and criminal law.
- “Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama.” Rethinking the constitutional role of developmental science.
- “On Prison Democracy.” Participation, accountability, and the limits of self-rule in prison.
- “Investment Talk.” A critique of economic framings in prison reform advocacy.
Works in progress
- “Scripted intimacy: How institutions make intimacy governable.” Family, care, and control in a boarding school.
- “Incarceration and Deservingness: Experimental Evidence on Less Eligibility.” Public opinion and prison reform.