At The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper known for its coverage of the corporate world, I found a niche in the criminal justice arena, driven there by my personal career trajectory and an awareness that a more punitive attitude by society and the courts had led to massive growth in the nation’s prison system.

I tried to add specificity to the problems others talked about in general terms, writing stories that provided stark evidence of how the system had changed. I highlighted how the school to prison pipeline now has longer lasting implications in the age of the Internet and companies that conduct background checks. I also looked at the intersection between mental health and the criminal justice system in a world that has seen mental health treatment opportunities wane while shifting the burden to the criminal justice system.