Speaker Series: Bryan Sykes

Criminal justice contact is a key stratifying institution in American life. By the close of 2020, almost 3.9 million non-incarcerated people were under community supervision (probation or parole), representing nearly 68% of the adult correctional population. Although the number of people incarcerated has declined since the Great Recession, alternatives to incarceration may introduce new pathways to inequality because compliance with court-ordered diversionary and rehabilitation programs rely heavily on access to resources, such as money, information, and time. While there has been a considerable expansion of literature on the consequences of monetary sanctions imposed at sentencing, less is known about how alternatives to incarceration can produce other financial punishments that intersect and amplify inequality within the criminal legal system. In this paper, we show how shadow costs – financial outlays and expenditures not immediately quantifiable by the state but nevertheless ordered as a part of a reentry or rehabilitation treatment program — financially burden defendants, probationers, and parolees beyond the monetary sanctions imposed by courts. Our findings reveal that these shadow costs structure a bifurcated system of justice that facilitates the creation of markets for freedom that are dependent on poverty and inequality.

This speaker will present in-person at the ABF, with the option to view the presentation virtually. To register, contact Sophie Kofman at skofman@abfn.org. 

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Bryan Sykes is an Inclusive Excellence Term Chair Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society (and, by courtesy, Sociology and Public Health); a Faculty Affiliate in The Center for Demographic and Social Analysis (CDASA) and The Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California-Irvine.

His research focuses on demography and criminology, broadly defined, with particular interests in population processes (e.g., fertility, mortality, enumeration), mass incarceration, global population health, social inequality, law & society, and research methodology. He applies and develops demographic, statistical, and mixed methodologies to understand changing patterns of inequality — nationally and abroad. His research has appeared in general and multidisciplinary science, social science, and medical journals.