Paul Leighton, Ph.D.

Professor at Eastern Michigan University

Paul Leighton is the co-author, with Jeffrey Reiman, of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. He is also the co-author, with Gregg Barak and Allison Cotton, of Class, Race, Gender & Crime. Donna Selman and Paul Leighton authored a book on private prisons, Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business and the Incarceration Binge. His current interest is in whistleblowing and a next-generation high-tech Japanese rehabilitation center.

After getting his Ph.D. in Washington, D.C., Paul drove across country in a 1971 VW van whose engine he had built. He recently finished his term as president of the board of SafeHouse, Washtenaw County's domestic violence shelter and sexual assault crisis intervention center.

Dr. Leighton's recent publications include:

Reiman, J., & Leighton, P. (2017). The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice (11th edition). Routledge.