RESEARCH ARTICLES
PRISON LABOR
My work on prison labor policy making is some of the first to center the role of working-class organizations in the development of the penal state.
Smith, Tyler. “To Protect Honest Labor: Labor Unions, Prison Labor, and the Discursive Field of Punishment.” Under Review.
MONETARY SANCTIONS
I have explored the use of court-imposed monetary sanctions, how monetary sanctions are understood by court actors, and how their implementation exacerbates social inequality.
Shannon, Sarah, Alexes Harris, Tyler Smith, Mary Pattillo, Andrea Giuffre, Aubrianne Sutherland, Robert Stewart, and Ilya Slavinski. 2025. “‘It’s like a Reverse Robin Hood - We All Know They Can’t Pay:’ How Court Actors Navigate the Competing Logics of Monetary Sanctions.” Criminology, 63, 26-57.
Smith, Tyler, Kristina Thompson, and Michele Cadigan. 2022. Sensemaking in the legal system: A comparative case study of changes to monetary sanction laws. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(1): 63-81.
Harris, Alexes, and Tyler Smith. 2022. Monetary sanctions as chronic and acute health stressors: The emotional and physical strain of people who owe court fines and fees. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(2): 36-56.
O’Neill, Kate, Tyler Smith, and Ian Kennedy. 2022. County dependence on monetary sanctions: Implications for women’s incarceration. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(2): 157-172.
Cadigan, Michele and Tyler Smith (*equal authorship). 2021. "‘Are you able-bodied?’: Embodying accountability in the modern criminal justice system.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 37(1): 25–44.
PRIVATIZATION
I am also interested in exploring the role of private actors in the criminal-legal system.
Harris, Alexes, Tyler Smith, and Emmi Obara. 2019. Justice “Cost Points”: Examination of privatization within public systems of justice. Criminology & Public Policy, 18, 343-359.