Publications

During undergrad, I had the opportunity to be published in the Roosevelt Institute's annual 10 Ideas Journal and the Michigan Journal of Political Science.

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"Popular Sovereignty as a Means to Maintain Racial Violence"

Thesis: "I posit that the centralization and growth of police forces in the twentieth century occurred, in part, because white supremacists played an explicit role in their expansion. In order to support this claim, I will outline the history of lynching in the United States, Ida B. Wells’ theory of popular sovereignty, and the amassment of police union power in the 20th century. Then, I will focus on notable Supreme Court rulings from the decades following the Civil Rights movement which illuminate the development of the qualified immunity doctrine. I contend that this doctrine has aided the shift from private extrajudicial violence to public, state-sanctioned violence." Read more on page 20...

"Combating Discrimination and Reducing Jail Populations: Eliminating Bail for Low-Level Crimes"

Thesis: "To reduce overpopulation in jails and combat subjectivity during arraignment proceedings, Michigan should pass a state law that requires anyone who is arrested and held for a non-violent misdemeanor or low-level felony—with an exception for DUIs—and has no criminal record be released pretrial."

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Background & Analysis: "The failed 'War on Drugs' transformed American jails and prisons into institutions that go beyond punishing perpetrators of crime; inmates today are targeted for inherent characteristics, such as race, mental health, and economic status. Beginning in the 1960s, the political push for “law and order” resulted in the implementation of harsher drug sentencing laws at the state and federal level, including the use of mandatory minimum penalties. Urbanites, who were predominantly minorities and residents of impoverished neighborhoods, bore the heaviest burden for such laws—a trend that continues today. Take Detroit, for example: more residents of the city were in detention centers in 2010 than were union workers. The impact of a biased, ambiguous criminal justice system is not only apparent in racial and geographic disparities, but it is also made evident within the system itself—specifically, in pretrial release decisions. The pretrial decision process is typically highly subjective due to equivocal bail laws—the rules that judges follow when they set the monetary amount, or bond, that a person charged with a crime must pay to be released before their trial. While racial bias has a strong presence in pretrial release decisions, other pertinent factors include a defendant’s record and the level of his or her offense. Most people detained across the country are charged with misdemeanors and are practically forced into jail because of their inability to afford bail. If Michigan laws were reformed to ensure that those convicted with misdemeanors aren’t charged with unreasonable bail fines, the number of inmates in county jails in Michigan—which are at or exceeding capacity—would be significantly reduced across the state." Read more on page 15...