Michelle S. Phelps is Professor of Sociology and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing in particular on policing, probation, and prisons. Her writing has appeared in public outlets, including The New Republic, The Minnesota Star Tribune, and MinnPost, alongside academic journals, including American Journal of Sociology and Social Problems. She is the co-author of Breaking the Pendulum: The Long Struggle Over Criminal Justice and the author of The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America, which was a finalist for the 2025 Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction.