Her research focuses on prisons, prisoners’ rights, and the impact of prison and punishment policy on individuals, communities, and legal systems. Her book on the history and uses of U.S. supermax prisons, 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement, will be released by Yale University Press in October 2016. Recent publications include the anthology Extreme Punishment, co-edited with Alexa Koenig; "Reclaiming the Power to Punish" in Law & Society Review in 2016, and “Parole, Snitch, or Die: California’s Supermax Prisons and Prisoners, 1987-2007” in Punishment and Society in 2012.