Tyler Smith

I study the extractive dimensions of the criminal-justice system and how these policies produce inequality. I am particularly interested in the interactive dynamics of the penal field and how actors make meaning out of carceral policies, negotiate their implementation on the ground, and institutionalize their perspectives through policy. Furthermore, I explore the impact of those policies on justice-involved individuals. I highlight both historical and contemporary cases of criminal-legal predation in order to situate penal practices across time and institional space. I have employed a range of qualitative methods to study these dynamics, including semi-structured interviews, courtroom ethnographies, discourse tracing, and content analysis of archival sources. Overall, my work sits at the intersection of the sociology of punishment, labor, and economic stratification.

Specifically, I research three sets of criminal-legal practices:

1. Prison Labor

2. Monetary Sanctions

3. Criminal-legal Privatization

My work has been generously supported by the American Sociological Association.

View my CV: here 

View my Google Scholar: here