Michael Stoll, professor and chair of Public Policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and associate director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty at UCLA, has co-authored the new book, "Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?" The book analyzes the expansion of America's prison system and argues for rethinking mass incarceration in this country.
Stoll's research interests include the study of urban poverty and inequality, specifically the interplay of labor markets, race/ethnicity, geography and policy, as well as and crime and prisons. Currently, he is working on major research projects that examine the labor market consequences of mass incarceration, the benefits and costs of the prison boom, the reasons for the prison boom in the United States, the social and economic consequences of urban sprawl, and the sources and consequences of differences in auto insurance premiums and traffic patterns within metropolitan areas.
Stoll received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in urban planning and a bachelor's degree in political economy from UC Berkeley. He also served as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City.
