Writing

I write about technology’s impact on the justice system. I’ve had bylines in Wired, the ABA Journal, the MIT Computational Law Report, and Wired, among many others. Below, you’ll find my writing projects and selected publications.


Newsletter

The Justice Tech Download newsletter brings together novel legal, policy, and technical issues swirling around civil and criminal justice data and technology.

40 Futures

My speculative fiction project will produce 40 stories and vignettes about the criminal justice system. It is published as written stories and a podcast through the Justice Tech Download, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.


Selected Publications

Justice Systems Thinking

A Human Rights Approach to Justice Technology Procurement, Georgetown Law Technology Review, 2023.

The Judicial Innovation Fellowship: A Roadmap to Strengthen State, Local, Territorial, and Tribal Courts, Georgetown Law, Jan. 2023.

Creating a Judicial Innovation Fellowship to Strengthen America’s Court Infrastructure, Day One Project, 2022.

Justice-as-a-Platform: A global landscape analysis of access to justice technologies, MIT Computational Law Report, 2021.

How the U.S. can compete with China on justice technology, Brookings Institution, 2021.

Digitizing state courts, expanding access to justice, Day One Project, 2021.

The Justice System as a Digital Platform, New America, 2020.

The legal and technical danger of moving criminal hearings online, Brookings, Aug. 2020.

Prosecutors should create innovation offices to improve justice and public safety, ABA Journal, Jun. 2018.

Emerging Technologies and the Need for Evaluation, John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center, Jan. 2016.

How to do Criminal Justice Tech the Right Way, Civicist, Jan. 2016.

AI, Big Data & Justice

Detain/Release: Teaching Law Students About AI Through Simulated Detention Hearings, National Law Review of India, 2020.

The Rise of the machines—but with checks and balances, ABA Journal, June 2019.

Better Data and Smarter Data Policy for a Smarter Criminal Justice System System, Harvard University Shorenstein Center, Dec. 2018, with Colleen Chien.

A good name is hard to clear: a national report on digital expungement applications, SIMLab, Jan. 2017.

Courts should pause the use of AI in criminal cases, Wired, Apr. 2017.

Calculating Crime: Attorneys are challenging the use of algorithms to help determine bail, sentencing and parole decisions, ABA Journal, Mar. 2017.

Kentucky tests new assessment tool to determine whether to keep defendants behind bars, ABA Journal, Apr. 2015.

The Fourth Amendment & Privacy

Changes in criminal procedure rule could expand the government's investigative net, ABA Journal, June 2017.    

Inaccurate leads from IP addresses prompt police to serve warrants on innocent people, ABA Journal, May 2017.

Police face constitutional challenges for using cellphone tracking devices to locate suspects, ABA Journal, July 2016. 

Law Enforcement & Public Safety

Defense lawyers want to peek behind the curtain of probabilistic genotyping, ABA Journal, Dec. 2017.

Should the public have access to data police acquire through private tech companies?, ABA Journal, Dec. 2016.

New York Considers "textalyzer" bill to allow police to see if drivers were texting behind the wheel, ABA Journal, Oct. 2016.

Looking Suspicious: Websites and apps for sharing crime and safety data have become outlets for racial profiling, ABA Journal, Aug. 2016.

Databases create access to police misconduct cases and offer a handy tool for defense lawyers, ABA Journal, Feb. 2016.

Release of police info draws suspicion, but it helps some defense attorneys, ABA Journal, Dec. 2015. 

Expungement & Criminal Records

Use copy right law to battle mugshot extortion, ABA Journal, Mar. 2018.

Expungement and Changing Your Criminal Record, Maryland People's Law Library, Oct. 2015.

Cleaning Records by the Thousands, ABA Journal, Sept. 2015.

Helping Expunge an Inaccurate Criminal Record, the Huffington Post, Apr. 2015.

Juvenile Justice

Youth Charged as Adults: The Use and Outcomes of Transfer in Baltimore City, University of Maryland School of Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender, and Class, Nov. 2014.

Baltimore Enforces Tough Curfew for City's Teens, The Takeaway, Aug. 2014. (Audio)

Curfew drop-off centers are too little too late, Baltimore Sun, Feb. 2014.

End automatic youth transfers in Maryland, Baltimore Sun, Aug. 2013.

Youth Courts International: Adopting an American Juvenile Diversion Scheme Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Oregon Review of International Law, Mar. 2013.