Confronting Conditions of Confinement

Heather Ann Thompson

Professor of History/DAAS/ Residential College, Carceral State Project co-director, DCCR co-PI, and directs the Confronting Conditions of Confinement Team. She writes regularly about prisons and policing for popular and scholarly audiences, serves on myriad policy boards, and has been the recipient of the Life Long Dedication to Social Justice Award from the Alliance of Families for Justice and the Regents Distinguished Award for Public Service from University of Michigan. She has also been awarded a Bearing Witness for Justice Fellowship from the Art for Justice fund, and has also been a Soros Justice Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow. Heather’s book Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy (Pantheon, 2016) won 7 awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize. She is also author of  Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor and Race in a Modern American City (Cornell, 2001, 2017), and is currently writing a book on the Philadelphia police’s bombing of MOVE in 1985 as well as one on the Bernhard Goetz subway shootings of 1984 in New York City

Jamie Hein

Jamie is a Ph.D. Student in History and Women’s & Gender Studies. Her research focuses on power and resistance, criminalization, and women’s confinement in U.S. history. Jamie came to the University of Michigan from Berkeley, California where her undergraduate work focused on deinstitutionalization in the mid-20^th century and subsequent use of jail and prison for mental health care. She was incarcerated in Las Vegas from 2007-2017, where she trained dogs, tutored women in the adult education department, earned her Associate’s degree, and served on the Inmate Advisory Committee. Jamie remains inspired by the women she knew in prison.

Charlotte Boucher

Charlotte is a PhD candidate in Political Science. Her research focuses on the effects of police violence and neglect on the political behavior of residents in neighborhoods suffering from this double sided policing. Her case studies focus on neighborhoods in both Chicago, IL and Saint Denis, France.

Alex Melody Burnett

Ph.D. Candidate (History and Women’s and Gender Studies). Alex Melody Burnett studies gender, race, sexuality, labor, and state power in the twentieth century United States from a transfeminist perspective. Her dissertation explores the criminalization of transfemininity and the rise of trans politics in northern California after the 1966 anti-police uprising at Compton’s Cafeteria. With the Carceral State Project, Alex has written about the 2016 uprising at the Kinross Correctional Facility, Michigan’s juvenile court fine system, and, most recently, incarcerated women’s political organizing and survival tactics in Michigan jails and prisons. Her scholarly writing has appeared in the Journal of The History of Sexuality. 

J’Mauri Jackson

J’Mauri is a Ph.D. Student in Public Policy and Sociology. Her research focuses on the health consequences of state surveillance and violence and the conditions of health and healthcare in Michigan prisons and jails.

Adler Fritz

Recent graduate of the University of Michigan with a BA in Community and Global Public Health and a minor in Afro-American and African Studies. Adler’s research interests include investigating the burden of mass incarceration and amplifying the voices of those directly impacted by the justice system. As a part of the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team, he has engaged in Archival research focused on analyzing PCAP (Prison Creative Arts Project) anthologies published throughout Michigan youth correctional settings. Additionally, Adler is the author of “Surviving and Resisting Youth Incarceration in Michigan,” a report underscoring the transformative and resilient powers of creative art workshops conducted within correctional facility settings. 

Claudia Rubalcava

Claudia is an undergraduate student in Political Science (BA); Minor in History of Law and Policy. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, she is passionate about the intricacies surrounding the American prison-industrial complex and how it targets disenfranchised communities in the United States. Her research with the Carceral State Project primarily focused on jail systems in Michigan, specifically Washtenaw County.

Kyra Newman

Kyra is a senior studying Political Science and Sociology who is passionate about social justice and advocacy for those who are incarcerated. Her research focuses on women’s incarceration, resistance, and addressing structural issues within the criminal legal system. Kyra’s work with the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team has involved working and speaking with incarcerated women from Michigan prisons and compiling written and spoken experiences into comprehensive and cohesive resources.

Kat Brausch

Kat Brausch is a PhD Candidate in the History Department and a legal historian of the American Left. Her research explores the connections between personal injury law, radical labor movements, and resistance to the carceral state in the third quarter of the 20th Century. She received her JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 2018. 

Eliza McKinney

Eliza McKinney is a PhD in History. Their research focuses on the history of juvenile delinquency in the United States post-World War II and the cultural perceptions of youth crime. Drawing on their experience as a social worker, they examine punitive programming and educational rhetoric that attempted to scare teenagers into model behavior.

Henry Baratz

Undergraduate Student (Social Theory and Practice/Public Policy). Henry Baratz is from the Washington, D.C. metro area. He is interested in the intersections of decarceration/abolitionist praxis and sexual healthcare access and agency. His research with the Carceral State Project is in collaboration with Black and Pink at the School of Public Health and focuses on the conditions of confinement and forms of resistance/community-building from transgender individuals in Michigan prisons. 

Megan Ocelnik

Megan is a MSW student on the Welfare of Children and Families pathway.  Her research with Confronting Conditions of Confinement focuses on family and pregnancy in Michigan prisons along with their ties to the greater U.S. incarceration system. Megan is currently a workshop facilitator for the Prison Creative Arts project and hopes to work with youth and families dealing with incarceration in the future.

Paige Bost

Undergraduate Student (Psychology/Crime and Justice/Spanish). Paige Bost is from Indianapolis, Indiana and is graduating from the University of Michigan in December 2024. Their work on the Confronting Conditions of Confinement Team is exploring the history of religious practice and freedoms in Jackson Prison. They are currently applying to Psychology PhD programs to study white racial socialization and how to ameliorate children’s social biases.

Saoirse Dennehy

Saoirse Dennehy is from Boston, Massachusetts and is currently a senior pursuing a major in Psychology and a minor in Crime & Justice. Saoirse is passionate about understanding the legal and criminal justice system so that she can help incarcerated individuals as well as formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter society. She is currently working on the Story Map about North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan and hopes to pursue a career in Law and Social Work following graduation. 

Nina Rosenberg

Undergraduate Student (Public Health/Public Policy/Computer Science). Nina Rosenberg is a junior from Westchester, NY. Her work on the Prison Uprisings in America team focuses on healthcare, food, and legal action taken by incarcerated people. She contributed to the Kinross Uprisings report and is also a member of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab’s Detroit-based project. After graduation, Nina hopes to begin an MPH program.

Alec Gharibian

Undergraduate student (Sport Management and Crime and Justice). Alec Gharibian is a junior from Glendale, CA. His work on the Conditions of Confinement Team is focused on looking at religion within the prison system, specifically exploring the history, disparities across religions, and recidivism rates. After graduation, Alec wishes to attend law school to pursue a career in environmental/health law. 

Anna Reins

Undergraduate Student (Political Science / Crime and Justice). Anna is a junior from Tampa, FL, dedicated to exploring the intersections of law and justice. Her work on the Conditions of Confinement team investigates the degree to which incarcerated individuals have access to the courts in Michigan prisons. She is currently co-authoring “The Bar Behind Bars: Law Libraries, Jailhouse Lawyers, and Justice in Michigan Prisons”. Her research focuses on the availability and adequacy of law libraries in Women’s Huron Valley and Jackson Prison in Michigan. After graduation, Anna aims to attend law school, where she plans to further her advocacy for criminal justice reform within legal frameworks.

Ariana Kertsman

Undergraduate Student (Social Theory and Practice, Afroamerican and African Studies). Ariana Kertsman is a researcher for the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team. She is interrogating how the racialized and punitive foundations of the K-12 American education system have given rise to the school-to-prison pipeline, as well as affected students’ sense of belonging, safety, and agency within the educational and carceral systems. Ariana is involved with the Prison Creative Arts Project and the Telling It Program at the University of Michigan, both of which utilize the expressive arts to build community with youth and adults inside carceral, and/or educational facilities. After graduation, Ariana hopes to work at the intersection of decarceration, education, racial justice and eventually pursue a PhD in a relevant field.

Kate Holcomb

Kate is a first-year MSW student who is passionate about social justice and policy. Her research focuses on resistance, women’s incarceration, and issues impacting mental health within the criminal legal system. Her work with Confronting Conditions of Confinement has involved archival policy research as well as analyzing and curating written testimonials of escapees and whistleblowers from Michigan prisons. Kate plans to pursue a career in the juvenile justice system and help at-risk youths.

Joseph Foley

Joseph Foley joined the CSP as a postdoctoral research fellow in the fall of 2023. Joseph works with
both Confronting Conditions of Confinement teams and oversees the work of the broader project.
His work includes forging ties between the CSP and community organizations, as our teams seek to
make our research useful to those organizations in their vital, ongoing advocacy work. Joseph received a doctorate in US history from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2023. His dissertation investigates the role of the carceral state in reinforcing class and racial dichotomies within Baltimore.

Peter Martel

Ph.D. Student (Public Policy/Sociology). Peter Martel is a graduate student in the Public Policy & Sociology program at the Ford School of Public Policy. His research focuses on the U.S. legal system, mass incarceration, and criminal procedure. Pete was incarcerated in Michigan from 1994-2008, worked as a prisoner advocate at the American Friends Service Committee from 2010-2016, and earned his law degree from Wayne State University Law School in 2016.

Patrick Bates

Community Researcher for Documenting Prison Education and the Arts and Confronting Conditions of Confinement. After spending his life inside correctional facilities across the state of Michigan, Patrick Bates came home to change a pattern of systematic slavery and death by incarceration. He has worked on several projects with various organizations based on reforming and abolishing a system of which he was a victim. The advocacy groups with which he has worked include the University of Michigan Carceral State Project, #UMBehindBars, Prison Creative Arts Project, and American Civil Liberties Union.

Sadly, Patrick lost his life not long after coming home and we will miss him always.

Julia Reinach

Originally from Natick, Massachusetts, Julia graduated from the University of Michigan in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology. She wrote her undergraduate Honors History thesis on conditions of confinement at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility. While a student, Julia worked for the Carceral State Project in a number of capacities – she was the team leader of research teams specifically focused on conditions of confinement and resistance at Kinross Correctional Facility (2016 Uprising), as well as Jackson State Prison (1981 Uprising). She also worked closely with Professor Matt Lassiter on the Social Justice and Policing HistoryLab, researching wrongful convictions, police brutality, and misconduct in Detroit from 1994-2014. Currently, Julia works as a General Project Coordinator and as the Executive Assistant to the Director of the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative. She also works for the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice.

Parker Kehrig

Undergraduate Student (Sociology/Social Work/Women’s and Gender Studies). Parker Kehrig is a junior from Harper Woods. Their focus on Confronting Conditions of Confinement has been on collecting written testimonials of currently incarcerated people and conducting oral histories with formerly incarcerated people. Parker hopes to begin a MSW program after graduation.

Noor Moughni

Undergraduate Student (Philosophy/Middle Eastern Studies). Noor Moughni is a first-year student from Dearborn, Michigan. On the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team, Noor’s focus has been collecting written testimonials from currently incarcerated people and researching archival materials relating to commissary prices and religious opportunities at women’s facilities in Michigan. Noor hopes to attend law school after graduation.

Ashley Hayes

Undergraduate Student (Afro-American and African Studies/Education for Empowerment). Ashley Hayes is a senior from Southfield, MI. Her work on Confronting Conditions of Confinement involves collecting, analyzing and curating the written testimonials of many voices and identities of people who are currently incarcerated in the state of Michigan, with the goal of improving the present conditions of confinement. Ashley hopes to begin a doctoral program in African-American Studies upon graduating.

Nora Krinitsky

DCC/CSP Project Director (2019-2021), RC Lecturer, Co-Director DPEA Team. Nora Krinitsky is Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project and Lecturer in the Residential College at U-M. She is a historian of the modern United States and specializes in urban history, African American history, and the history of the American carceral state. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of History at the University of Michigan in 2017. Professor Krinitsky is co-director of the Documenting Prison Education and Arts team and a contributor to the Conditions of Confinement team. She served as Project Director for Documenting Criminalization and Confinement from 2019-2021.

John Hibbard

J.D. Candidate (Law). John Hibbard is a law student from Plymouth, Michigan. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 2018, majoring in political science. As a law student, he also has worked on the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse with Professor Margo Schlanger, where he tracked the lawsuits that arose out of the protests following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.

Mahnoor Imran

Undergraduate Student (Public Policy/History). Mahnoor Imran is a second-year student who is passionate about confronting the injustices of the criminal legal system, and she aspires to do meaningful work that helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. She is currently a member of the Prison Creative Arts Project Executive Committee and a writer for the Michigan Specter focusing on prisons, policing, and surveillance.

Allyson Moralez

Undergraduate Student (Cognitive Science and Crime & Justice). Allyson Moralez graduated from the University of Michigan in 2021 and is from Fennville, Michigan. She worked on the oral histories and Kinross Uprising projects for the Conditions of Confinement team.

Anya Satyawadi

Undergraduate Student (History/Program in the Environment). Anya Satyawadi is from Pittsburgh and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2021. Her work with Confronting Conditions of Confinement involved collecting and analyzing testimonials from those who were formerly incarcerated and creating a space for contextualizing their voices. Anya also worked on the Crackdown project for the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab. She is currently attending law school in New York City.

Ava Wells

Undergraduate Student (History and Crime and Justice). Ava Wells is a researcher for the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team and contributed to the Kinross Uprising report. In addition to her work with DCC, Ava is also involved with the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in history, with a focus on recovering and revealing historically unrecognized narratives. 

Megan Wilson

Ph.D. Student (Classical Studies). Megan Wilson is a member of the Prison Creative Arts Project and, as part of the Confronting Conditions of Confinement team, has undertaken archival research on the history of Michigan prison conditions and conducted oral history interviews with returning citizens about their lived experiences.