Books
PrisonPandemic (2023). Locked Up and Locked Down: Stories from the Inside. Amazon Publishing (72 pp). Collected by the PrisonPandemic Team: Keramet Reiter, Naomi Sugie, Kristin Turney, Joanne DeCaro, Gabe Rosales, Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, Alexis Rowland, Maria Villalba Madrid. Order it here!
Reiter, K. (2017). Mass Incarceration, Key Notes In Criminology and Criminal Justice Series (New York: Oxford University Press). Order it here!
Reiter, K. (2016). 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement (New Haven: Yale University Press). Order it here!
Reiter, K. & A. Koenig, eds. (2015). Extreme Punishment: Comparative Studies in Detention, Incarceration and Solitary Confinement (New York: Palgrave MacMillan). Order it here!
Selected Expert Reports
Reiter, K. with K. Chesnut, G. Gonzalez, J. Strong, R. Tublitz, D. Augustine, Barragan, P. Dashtgard, and N. Pifer (2021). “Reducing Restrictive Housing Use in Washington State: Results from the 2016-2020 Study ‘Understanding and Replicating Washington State’s Segregation Reduction Programs,’ Contract No. K11273,” available online at https://www.doc.wa.gov/corrections/incarceration/docs/restrictive-
housing-university-california-irvine-report.pdf (57 pp)
Reiter, K. and J. Sundt (2021). “The Work Experiences of LASD Custody Personnel: Results to Inform the Professional Development, Support, and Retention of an Excellent Workforce,” commissioned research and report for the Los Angeles County of the Office of the Inspector General, available online at https://tinyurl.com/2vnnjuac (96 pp).
Articles & Book Chapters
Sundt, J., K. Reiter, B. Williams. (2024). “The Interdependence of Caring, Safety, and Health in Correctional Settings: Analysis of a Survey of Security Staff in a Large County Jail System,” Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 358: 117218 (9 pp)
Reiter, K., D. Moss, O. B. Dror. (2024). “Overview of the International Guiding Statement on Alternatives to Solitary Confinement,” American Bar Association Criminal Justice Magazine, Vol 38.4: 11-16
Sugie, N., K. Turney, K. Reiter, M.N. Segule, R. Tublitz*, D. Kaiser*, R. Goodsell*, E. Secrist*, A. Patil, M. C. Jiménez. (2023). “Excess Mortality in U.S. Prisons During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Science Advances, Vol. 9.48 (Dec.), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj8104 (10 pp)
Augustine, D., M. Barragan, G. Gonzales, and K. Reiter (2023). “Deconstructing the Power Dynamics of Prison Research,” the Prison Journal, DOI: 10.1177/00328855231208011 (22 pp)
Reiter, K. (2022). “Afterward,” to John Hill, Pine Box Parole Calgary, Alberta: Durvile Publishing: 157-63
Reiter, K. (2022). “On the Eighth Amendment: An Unrealized Agenda,” in Shall Make, Shall Be: The Bill of Rights at Play. Laine Nooney, ed./curator. Seattle, WA: Girl Friday Books: 81-83
Barragan, M., G. Gonzalez, J.D. Strong*, D. Augustine, K. Chesnut, K. Reiter, and N. Pifer (2022). “Triaged Out of Care: How Carceral Logics Complicate a ‘Course of Care’ in Solitary Confinement,” Healthcare, Vol. 10.2: 289 (15 pp)
Reiter, K. (2023). “Methodological Considerations: Pitfalls and Potentials,” invited for Handbook on Prisons & Jails, Danielle Rudes, Gaylene Armstrong, Kim Kras, and TaLisa Carte, eds. New York: Routledge: 446-50
Reiter, K. (2021). “Remaking Carceral Policy: A Response to Littman,” Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc, Vol. 74: 457-67
Reiter, K. (2021). “Does a public health crisis justify more research with incarcerated people?” Hastings Center Report, Mar-Apr: 10-16.
Augustine, D., M. Barragan, K. Chesnut, N. Pifer, K. Reiter, and J. Strong (2021). “Window Dressing: Possibilities and Limitations of Infrastructural Changes in Solitary Confinement,” Health & Justice 9 (13 pp)
Reiter, K. (2021). “Law’s Infamy: Ashker v. Brown and the Failures of Solitary Confinement Reform,” Law’s Infamy, in the Amherst Series in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, Austin Sarat, ed., New York University Press: 176-212
Lovell, D., R. Tublitz, K. Reiter, K. Chesnut, & N. Pifer (2020). “Opening the Black Box of Solitary Confinement through Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration: A Longitudinal Analysis of Prisoner and Solitary Populations in Washington State, 2002-17,” Justice Quarterly, Vol. 37.7: 1303-21.
Franco, K., C. Patler, and K. Reiter (2020). “Punishing Status and the Punishment Status Quo: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention Facilities, 2013-2017,” Punishment & Society, doi.org/10.1177/1462474520967804.
Strong, J., K. Reiter., D. Augustine, M. Barragan, K. Chesnut, P. Dashtgard, G. Gonzalez, N. Pifer, and R. Tublitz (2020). “The Body in Isolation: The Physical Health Impacts of Incarceration in Solitary Confinement,” PLOS ONE, Vol. 15(10): e0238510.
Reiter, K., J. Ventura, D. Lovell, D. Augustine, M. Barragan, T. Blair, K. Chesnut, P. Dashtgard, G. Gonzalez, N. Pifer, J. Strong (2020). “Psychological Distress in Solitary Confinement: Symptoms, Severity, and Prevalence, United States, 2017-18,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 110: S52-S56.
Reiter, K., Augustine, D., M. Barragan, K. Chesnut, G. Gonzalez, N. Pifer, with J. Strong (2020). “Reflections on Team Research in Carceral Settings,” Women’s Scholars Experiences Doing Prison Research, Jennifer Schlosser, ed. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield): 13-34.
Reiter, K. (2019). “The Rise of Supermax Imprisonment in the United States,” in Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform, Jules Lobel and Peter Scharff Smith, eds, Oxford University Press: 77-88.
Reiter, K. (2019). “The Path to Pelican Bay: The Origins of the Supermax Prison in the Shadow of the Law, 1982–1989,” in Caging Borders and Carceral States: Incarcerations, Immigration Detentions, and Resistance, Robert Chase, ed. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press: 303-40.
Reiter, K. and T. Blair (2018). “Superlative Subjects, Institutional Futility, and the Limits of Punishment,” Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 23.2: 162-193.
Reiter, K. (2018). “Paying to be Locked Up” (cover story), American Scholar, Winter: 18-33.
Donson, J. and K. Reiter (2018). “Understanding Federal ‘Restrictive Housing Unit’ Environments,” Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 31.2: 126-132.
Reiter, K. (2018). “After Solitary Confinement: A New Era of Punishment?” (lead article), Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 77: 1-29.
Reiter, K. and K. Chesnut (2018). “Correctional Autonomy and Authority in the Rise of Mass Incarceration,” Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 14: 49-68.
Sumner, J., L. Sexton, and K. Reiter (2018). “The Scream: Insider Access and Outsider Legitimacy in Danish Prisons,” in Doing Criminology: Discovery through Fieldwork, S. Rice and M. Maltz, eds. (Springer): 277-88.
Reiter, K. (2018). “Solitary Confinement and Supermax Custody,” Handbook of Corrections in the United States, Hayden Griffin and Vanessa Woodward, eds. (Routledge Press): 382-89
Reiter, K. (2018). “The International Persistence & Resilience of Solitary Confinement,” Oñati International Series in Law & Society, Vol. 8.2 (20 pp).
Rubin, A.T. and K. Reiter (2017). “Continuity in the Face of Penal Innovation: Revisiting the History of American Solitary Confinement,” Law & Social Inquiry, DOI 10.1111/lsi.12330 (63 pp).
Reiter, K., L. Sexton, and J. Sumner (2017). “Theoretical and empirical limits of Scandinavian Exceptionalism: Isolation and normalization in Danish prisons,” Punishment & Society, Vol. 20.1: 92-112.
Barragan, M., K. Chesnut, J. Gravel, N. Pifer, K. Reiter, N. Sherman, and G. Tita (2017). “Prohibited Possessors and the Law: How Inmates in Los Angeles Jails Understand Ammunition and Gun Laws,” The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3.5: 141-63.
Reiter, K. and S. Coutin (2017). “Crossing Borders and Criminalizing Identity: The Disintegrated Subjects of Hybrid Administrative Sanctions,” Law & Society Review, Vol. 51.3: 567-601.
Reiter, K., L Sexton, and J. Sumner (2017). “Negotiating Imperfect Humanity in the Danish Penal System,” in Embraced by the welfare state? Scandinavian penal history, culture and prison practice, Peter Scharff Smith and Thomas Ugelvik, eds. (Palgrave MacMillan): 481-508.
Reiter, K. (2016). “Reclaiming the Power to Punish: Legislating & Administrating the California Supermax, 1982-1989,” Law and Society Review, Vol. 50.2: 484-518.
Barragan, M., N. Sherman, K. Reiter & G. Tita (2016). “’Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’: Perceptions of guns, safety and legitimacy among detained gun offenders,” Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 43.1: 140-55.
Reiter, K. (2015). “Domains of Policy: Law & Society Perspectives on Punishment and Social Control,” in the Law & Society Handbook, Austin Sarat and Patricia Ewick, eds. (Wiley-Blackwell).
Reiter, K. & T. Blair (2015). “Punishing Mental Illness: Trans-Institutionalization and Solitary Confinement in the United States,” in Extreme Punishment: Comparative Studies in Detention, Incarceration, and Solitary Confinement, Keramet Reiter and Alexa Koenig, eds. (Palgrave).
Reiter, K (2015). “Supermax Administration and the Eighth Amendment: Discretion, Deference, and Double-Bunking, 1986-2010,” University of California Irvine Law Review, Vol. 5.1: 89-152.
Reiter, K. & N. Pifer (2015). “Brown v. Plata,” Oxford Handbooks Online in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Michael Tonry, ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015), DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935383.013.113.
Reiter, K (2014). “The Supermax Prison: A Blunt Means of Control, or a Subtle Form of Violence?” Radical Philosophy Review, Vol. 17.2: 457-75. [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Reiter, K (2014). “No Data, No Change: Bringing Prisons out of Hiding,” in The Politics of Abolition Revisited, by Thomas Mathiesen (New York: Routledge Press): 314-20.
Reiter, K (2014). “The Pelican Bay Hunger Strike: Resistance within the Structural Constraints of a U.S. Supermax Prison,” South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 113.3: 579-611. [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Reiter, K (2014). “Making Windows in Walls: Strategies for Prison Research,” Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 20.4: 417-28 (April). [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Reiterk, K (2014). “Punitive Contrasts: United States vs. Denmark – A Socio-Legal Comparison of Two Prison Systems,” in The Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Annual: Global Perspectives, Larry Sullivan, ed., Vol 6/1 (Brooklyn, NY: AMS Press, Inc.): 139-76 .
Reiter, K. (2013). “The Origins of and Need to Control Supermax Prisons.” California Journal of Politics and Policy, Vol. 5.2: 146-167. [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Reiter, K. (2012). “Parole, Snitch, or Die: California’s Supermax Prisons and Prisoners, 1987-2007.” Punishment & Society, Vol. 14.5: 530-63. [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Reiter, K. (2012). “The Most Restrictive Alternative: A Litigation History of Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons, 1960-2006.” Studies in Law, Politics and Society, Vol. 57: 69-123. [Please e-mail author if you would like a pdf of this article.]
Obasogie, O. & Reiter, K. (2011). “Prisoners as Human Subjects: Putting the Ethical Question in Context.” Bioethics, Vol. 25.1: 55-56.
Reiter, K. (2009). “Experimentation on Prisoners: Persistent Dilemmas in Rights and Regulations.” California Law Review, Vol. 97.2: 501-566.
Reiter, K. & Fellner, J. (2006). Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons (A Human Rights Watch Report).
Commentaries & Testimonies
Gomez, J., and K. Reiter (2024). “Opinion: We advocate for higher education opportunities to those involved in the criminal legal system,” San Diego Union Tribune, Jun. 21.
Reiter, K. (2023). “Is the Sun Setting on Solitary Confinement?” OnlySky, Mar. 8.
Reiter, K. and K. Tinto (2023). “Creating a prison to university pipeline,” The Daily Journal, Feb. 16.
Sugie, N., K. Turney, and K. Reiter (2020). “California’s Racial Justice Crisis is COVID-19 in Prisons,” Medium (Jun.).
Sugie, N., K. Reiter, and K. Turney (2020). “California’s needs to protect prison staff and inmates during COVID-19 Pandemic,” CalMatters (May).
Reiter, K. (2018). “Participatory Investigation of Place and Space in an Anti-Prison Movement,” Review Symposium, Judah Schept’s Progressive Punishment, Social Justice, Vol. 44.2/3: 185-9.
Reiter, K. (2018). Review of Terry Kupers’ Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It,” Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, Jan.
Reiter, K. and A. Koenig (2018). “Reiter and Koenig on Challenges and Strategies for Researching Trauma,” Social Science Matters Blog, Palgrave MacMillan, http://www.palgrave.com/gb/social-science-matters/reiter-and-koenig-on-researching-trauma.
Reiter, K. and S. Coutin (2017). “Methodologies for Comparing Experiences across Diverse Institutions,” Comparative Penology Blog, Institute of Criminology, https://www.compen.crim.cam.ac.uk/Blog/blog-pages-full-versions/blog-15-reitercoutin.
Reiter, K. (2017). “Review of Heather Ann Thompsons’s Blood in the Water,” British Journal of Criminology, doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azx043.
Reiter, K. (2017). “Another Voice: Coercion and Access to Healthcare,’” Hastings Center Report, 47.2 (Mar./Apr.): 30–31.
Reiter, K. (2016). “Op-Ed: How to fix solitary confinement in American prisons,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 17.
Reiter, K. (2016). “Review of David Skarbek’s The Social Order of the Underworld,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 121.6: 1966-68.
Reiter, K., L. Sexton, & J. Sumner (2016). Denmark doesn’t treat its prisoners like prisoners — and it’s good for everyone. Washington Post, Feb. 2.
Reiter, K. (2015). “(Un)Settling Solitary in California,” Social Justice, Sept. 28.
Blair, T. & K. Reiter (2015). “Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness: Ethical Challenges for Clinicians; in response to Glowa-Kollisch et al,” Health and Human Rights Journal (December), online as of July:http://www.hhrjournal.org/2015/07/02/letter-to-the-editor-and-author-res….
Reiter, K., J. Selbin, & E. Hersh (2014). “Op-Ed: Should a shoplifting conviction be an indelible scarlet letter? Not in California.” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 29: A-13.
Reiter, K (2014). “Spirituality in Dark Places: The Ethics of Solitary Confinement” (Review of book by Derek Jeffreys), Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books (Sept.).
Reiter, K (2013). “From the Hyper-local to the Supra-global: Review of the Globalization of Supermax Prisons” (Jeffrey Ian Ross, ed.), Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 60.4 (Nov.).
Reiter, K (2013). “Watching Herman’s House.” PBS: Documentaries with a Point of View, Jul. 8.
Reiter, K. (2012). “Statement before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, June 15, 2012,” Hearing on Solitary Confinement (Jun. 19).
Selected Media
Featured on the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice podcase “JustPod” with Oneg Ben Dror, May 30, 2024.
Featured on Shankar Vidantam, “Hidden Brain,” NPR, Apr. 3, 2017.
Profiled on Live Law, Translating (law and social) Science [at 40:00 minutes]
“These conditions aren’t bad just for prisoners. They’re bad for everyone.”
— The Social Cost of Solitary Confinement , Time Magazine, 2016
Interviewed on Felony Friday, 50th podcast on Lions of Liberty: Keramet Reiter Sounds the Alarm on the Solitary Confinement Epidemic
Interview on The American Scholar‘s Smarty Pants Podcast: The Aftermath – Finding hope in unexpected places: prison, protest, and poetry
Featured on Rising up with Sonali: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement