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Kristen Bell

Associate Professor
Faculty Director, Public Service and Policy Program
Law, Law-JD
krbell@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-0206
Office: 330D Knight Law School, 1221 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1221
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Biography

Kristen Bell is an Associate Professor at University of Oregon School of Law, with a courtesy appointment in philosophy. Her research leverages multiple disciplines to investigate sentencing and parole. In her publications, she explores the normative foundations of parole, conducts empirical analysis of parole decisions, and analyzes state constitutional law regarding parole and sentencing. Applying her parole expertise and philosophical training in ethics, Bell also collaborates with data scientists in applying machine learning tools to improve equity in parole-release decisions.  

Bell is a recipient of the Hollis Teaching Award, a commissioner on the Oregon Law Commission, and an advisory board member of the State Law Research Initiative. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and earned her PhD in philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. She clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, worked as a Soros Justice Fellow, and was a Senior Liman Fellow and Lecturer at Yale Law School. Bell is a member of the state bar of California and Oregon. 

 

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Research Interests

Parole, sentencing, state constitutional law, post-conviction advocacy, philosophy of law, machine learning and law.

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Publications

  • Legality, Dignity, and Discretion in Parole-Release Decisions, Oxford Handbook of Sentencing (2026)
  • State Constitutional Prohibitions Against Unnecessary Rigor in Arrest and Confinement. Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 17, 124-246 (2025)
  • Using Machine Learning to Scrutinize Parole Hearings. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, vol. 40, 233-284 (2025) (co-author with Jenny Hong, Catalin Voss, Graham Todd, and AJ Alvero)
  • The Forgotten Jurisprudence of Parole and State Constitutional Doctrines of Vagueness. Cardozo Law Review, vol. 44, 1953-2023 (2023)
  • Critical Mercy in Criminal Law. Law and Philosophy (2022)
  • The Recon Approach: A New Direction for Machine Learning in Criminal Law. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, vol. 37 (Spring 2022) (co-author with Jenny Hong, Nick McKeown, and Catalin Voss)
  • A Normative Theory of Parole Grounded in Agency. Philosophical Issues, Volume31, Issue1 (October 2021) Pages 24-40
  • A Stone of Hope: Legal and Empirical Analysis of California Juvenile Lifer Parole Decisions. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, vol. 54, 455-548 (2019)
  • A Reparative Approach to Parole Release Decisions, in Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Chris W. Surprenant ed., Routledge 2018)
  • Prisoners as Patients: The Opioid Epidemic, Medication-Assisted Treatment, and the Eighth Amendment, 46 The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 252 (2018) (co-author with Michael Linden, Sam Marullo, Curtis Bone, and Declan T. Barry)
  • Sentencing Inside Prisons:  Efforts to Reduce Isolating Conditions, UMKC Law Review (2018) (co-author with Judith Resnik)
  • Aiming to Reduce Time-in-Cell: Reports from Correctional Systems on the Numbers of Prisoners in Restricted Housing and on the Potential of Policy Changes to Bring About Reforms, Association of State Correctional Administrators and the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program (2016) (co-author with Liman Center colleagues and students)

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Teaching

Criminal Law 

Sentencing and Corrections

Advanced Appellate Advocacy

Introduction to Criminal Law (undergraduate)

Mercy and the Rule of Law (Inside-Out class with UO Prison Education Program)

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