Dr. Rachel Ellis, Assistant Professor in Criminology & Criminal Justice, has received the 2024 American Society of Criminology's Michael J. Hindelang Outstanding Book award for “In This Place Called Prison: Women's Religious Life in the Shadow of Punishment” (University of California Press, 2023).
The Michael J. Hindelang Outstanding Book Award (established in 1992) is given annually for a book, published within three (3) calendar years preceding the year in which the award is made, that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology.
In her book, Dr. Ellis leverages data from a year of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women's prison to examine the contours of freedom and constraint offered by religion within an institution designed to punish (University of California Press, 2023). "In This Place Called Prison" speaks to the quest for dignity and light against the backdrop of mass incarceration, state surveillance, and American inequality.
Congratulations, Dr. Ellis!
