Andrea Armstrong
Dr. Norman C. Francis Distinguished Professor of Law
Education
J.D., Yale Law School, 2007
M.P.A., Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, 2001
B.A., New York University, 1996
Departments
- College of Law
Expertise
- Civil Rights
- Criminal Justice
- Incarceration
Bio
Andrea Armstrong is the Dr. Norman C. Francis Distinguished Professor of Law at 黑料社区, College of Law and a . Professor Armstrong joined the 黑料社区, College of Law faculty in 2010. She is a leading national expert on prison and jail conditions and is certified by the U.S. Department of Justice as a Prison Rape Elimination Act auditor.
Prof. Armstrong founded , a database/website designed by Loyola colleague Prof. Judson Mitchell, to document, analyze and memorialize deaths behind bars in Louisiana. She also facilitates and supports documentation efforts in other states. In 2025, Washington Post reporters voted to recognize her research as part of the inaugural class of the , "a list of people whose work will shape our society." Her research has also been profiled by and quoted in the New York Times, the Atlantic, National Public Radio, and the Times-Picayune among others.
Her scholarship focuses on the constitutional dimensions of prisons and jails, specifically prison labor practices, the intersection of race and conditions of incarceration, and public oversight of detention facilities. Prof. Armstrong has also testified before Congress on deaths in custody and prison labor and presented her research at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. She teaches in the related fields of incarceration law and policy, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, law and poverty, and race and the law.
Prof. Armstrong is an interdisciplinary and collaborative scholar, integrating incarceration law with history, public policy, and the arts. Her extensive include book chapters and articles in law review and peer-reviewed medical and public health journals. She has been the principal investigator for several grant-funded research projects, including research requiring Institutional Review Board approval. In 2019, she was named an Interdisciplinary Research Leader by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prof. Armstrong has also served as an appointed member of the Louisiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and on several Louisiana legislative study committees on issues related to incarceration practices. She has also worked with museums, local artists, and philanthropic foundations to translate incarceration law and policy into spaces and mediums that are accessible to the general public.
Professor Armstrong is a graduate of Yale Law School (JD), the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (MPA), and New York University (BA). After graduating from law school, Professor Armstrong served as a clerk for the Honorable Helen G. Berrigan of the United States Eastern District of Louisiana. She also litigated prisoners鈥 rights issues, among others, as a Thomas Emerson fellow with David Rosen and Associates in New Haven, CT. She has been admitted to practice in Connecticut (retired), New York (retired) and Louisiana state courts, as well as the U.S. District Court of Connecticut (retired), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (retired) and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Publications
Law Review/Journal Articles
Caring for the Incarcerated Patient: Provider Perceptions of Quality of Care in the State of Louisiana, 5 J. Louisiana Pub. Health Ass鈥檔 37 (2025).
Cancer Mortality in Louisiana鈥檚 Correctional System, 2015-2021, Research Letter: Oncology, 7(11) JAMA Network Open (Feb. 9, 2024) (with Totadri Dhimal, et al.).
Access Denied: Public Records and Incarcerated People, 19 U. St. Thomas L.J. 220 (2023)(symposium on prison conditions).
Health Services Use Among Formerly Incarcerated Louisiana Medicaid Members Within One Year of Release, 18(5) PLoS One (May 18, 2023)(with Ashley Wennerstrom et al).
Public Health and Prisons: Priorities in the Age of Mass Incarceration, 44 Ann. Rev. of Pub. Health 407 (April 2023)(with David Cloud, Ilana Garcia-Grossman & Brie Williams).
Unconvicted Incarcerated Labor, 57 Harv. J. C.R. & C.L. L. Rev. 1 (2022).
Prison Medical Deaths and Qualified Immunity, 112 J. of Crim. L. & Criminology 79 (2022).
Data, Deference, and Non-Disclosure: Shedding Light on Louisiana鈥檚 Death Behind Bars from 2015-2019, 23 Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. 105 (2021) (with Meredith Booker & Jenna Grant).
Beyond the 13th - Captive Labor, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 1039 (2021).
The Missing Link: Jail & Prison Conditions in Criminal Justice Reform, 80 LA. L. REV. 1 (2019).
Death Row Conditions Through an Environmental Justice Lens, 70 U. OF ARK. 203 (2017).
The Racial Origins of Doctrines Limiting Prisoner Protest, 60 HOWARD L. J. 221 (2016).
Race, Prison Discipline, and the Law, 5 U. OF CA. IRVINE L. REV. 101 (2015) (excerpt republished in law casebook, INCARCERATION AND THE LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (West, 2020).
No Prisoner Left Behind? Enhancing Public Transparency of Penal Institutions, 25 STAN. L. & POL'Y REV. 435 (2014).
Slavery Revisited in Penal Plantation Labor, 35 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 835 (2012).
Claims to Pre-emptive Use of Force: Some Trends and Projections, 100 AM. J. INT鈥橪 L. 525 (2006) (with Michael W. Reisman) (peer-reviewed).
The Devil is in the Details: Transitional Justice and African Peace Agreements, 6 AFR. HUM. RTS. L. J. 1 (2006) (with Gloria Ntegeye) (peer-reviewed).
Regional Issues in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan, XX WORLD POL鈥橸 J. 31 (2003) (with Barnett R. Rubin).
Book Chapters
Food-borne Punishment, in Carceral Architecture (Basile C. Baudez & Victoria Bergbauer, ed., 2025).
Foreword, in Captive State (Nick Weldon, ed., 2025).
Political Determinants of Contextual Vulnerability to Mass Incarceration & Climate Change in Climate Change & Health Justice: Applying an Equity Approach (Daniel Dawes et al. eds., forthcoming 2025)(with Cynthia Golembeski, Ans Irfan, Michael M茅ndez, Nicholas Shapiro & Julie Skarha).
Carceral Secrecy and (In)Security, in Race & National Security (Matiangai Sirleaf, ed., 2023).
German Reparations to the Jews after World War Two: A Turning Point in the History of Reparations, in THE HANDBOOK ON REPARATIONS 390 (Pablo de Greiff ed., 2006) (with Ariel Colonomos).
Reparations and Microfinance Schemes, in THE HANDBOOK ON REPARATIONS 676 (Pablo de Greiff ed., 2006) (with Hans Dieter Seibel).
The Role of Civil Society Actors in Reparations Legislation, in REDRESSING INJUSTICES THROUGH MASS CLAIMS PROCESSES (Permanent Court of Arbitration ed., 2006).
Bad Neighborhoods: The Great Lakes of Africa and South Central Asia, in MAKING STATES WORK 79 (Simon Chesterman et al. eds., 2005) (with Barnett R. Rubin).
Policy Reports
, The Promise of Justice Initiative (August 2023) (with Lydia Wright & Sara Gozalo).
, Incarceration Transparency Project (June 2023)
, pursuant to H.C.R. 85 (2021) (May 2023) (lead author for Louisiana Public Health Institute)
, Public Welfare Foundation (Oct. 2022)(with Marcus Kondkar).
, Public Welfare Foundation (Oct. 2022)(with Marcus Kondkar).
, Incarceration Transparency Project (June 2021).
, pursuant to La. H.C.R. 91 (2020), (May 2021) (with Bruce Reilly & Ashley Wennerstrom).
, The Promise of Justice Initiative (July 2018) (with Shanita Farris).
, Baptist Community Ministries (Summer 2018).
, Louisiana State Advisory Committee, U.S. Committee on Civil Rights, (Summer 2018).
, The New Orleans Prosperity Index: Tricentennial Collection, The Data Center (Mar. 2018) (excerpt republished in law casebook, INCARCERATION AND THE LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (West, 2020).
, The Promise of Justice Initiative (July 2017) (with Erica Navalance).
Commentary and Other Select Publications
Testimony, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, , May 21, 2024.
, MSNBC-Opinion (Dec. 16, 2023)
The Complexity of 鈥淣atural鈥 Deaths Behind Bars, 13 3-4 Academic Forensic Pathology 90-91 (Dec. 2023)(Letter to the Editor, with Nicholas Shapiro, Nona Bhatia, Katherine LeMasters, Rachel Smith).
, (blog post) Just Security (Oct. 6, 2023).
Testimony, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, , Sept. 20, 2022.
, Incarceration Law: Deaths Behind Bars Project (August 2022)
, Think Global Health (blog post), Council on Foreign Relations (April 29, 2022) (with Cynthia Golembeski, Ans Irfan, Michael M茅ndez, Nicholas Shapiro).
, (blog post) Just Security (Aug. 26, 2020).
, (op-ed) Louisiana Illuminator (July 12, 2020).
for 鈥淧er(Sister)鈥 on the Incarceration of Women, Tulane's Newcomb Art Museum (January 2019).
, The Appeal (April 10, 2018).
, Adult Prisons and Jails (Interim) for Century Regional Detention Facility in L.A. County, Jan. 31, 2018 (one of 9 audit team members).
Being Recognized as Citizens: A Human Security Dilemma in Central Asia and the Caucasus, (December 2002) (paper commissioned by the Commission on Human Security)