Hi there!

My name is Daniel. I’m a PhD student at the University of Chicago and a contributing editor at Inquest. I work on the history of incarceration in the 20th century United States. I’m interested in how different groups of Americans have understood the legal and moral dilemmas posed by incarceration, and their efforts to reform, abolish, or entrench prison as a response to criminal wrongdoing. My dissertation looks at this problem through the growth of constitutional law in prisons and jails during the 1960s and 1970s.

Before attending graduate school, I worked as a journalist, where I covered criminal justice. My essays and reporting have appeared in outlets like Smithsonian, The Baffler, The Nation, and The New Republic.

If you’d like to get in touch, you can email me at danielfernandez@uchicago.edu.