Alexes Harris
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About Alexes
Alexes Harris, Ph.D., is the Presidential Term Professor and Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Her research fundamentally centers on issues of inequality, poverty and race in United States' criminal legal systems. Her book, A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as a Punishment for the Poor details the ways in which sentenced fines and fees often put an undue burden on disadvantaged populations and place them under even greater supervision of the criminal justice system. She was inducted into the WA State Academy of Sciences (2017), is currently the chair of the WA State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Comm on Civil Rights.
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No Jargon Podcast
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Argues that the imposition of legal financial obligations (LFOs), or fines and fees, creates a two-tiered system of punishment, one for those with financial means and one for those who are poor. Non-elected court bureaucrats enforce this system and assess debtors’ remorse for their crimes based on ideas of personal responsibility, meritocracy and accountability. When the poor are unable to pay, they cannot be held fully accountable for their offending and experience a permanent punishment. Illustrates how behind the shield of justice, court officials are empowered to apply discretion through paternalistic lenses that marginalize the poor.
Investigates the discourse individuals use when talking about desisting from criminal offending. Analyzes the links between offenders’ accounts of past negative behavior, their construction of their possible “clean” future selves, and the social and structural conditions in which they were raised and continue to be embedded. The analysis highlights how limited structural opportunities influence individuals’ lifestyles and behaviors, how individuals approach the desistance process even in the face of structural deprivation, and how they attempt to sustain this desistance process.
Investigates the discourse individuals use when talking about desisting from criminal offending. Analyzes the links between offenders’ accounts of past negative behavior, their construction of their possible “clean” future selves, and the social and structural conditions in which they were raised and continue to be embedded. The analysis highlights how limited structural opportunities influence individuals’ lifestyles and behaviors, how individuals approach the desistance process even in the face of structural deprivation, and how they attempt to sustain this desistance process.
Conducts an HLM analysis of Washington State court data and finds that non-legal factors increase the amount of legal financial obligation (LFO) that defendants receive. Holding legal and non-legal factors constant Latinos, men, people convicted of drug offenses, and those requesting a jury trial (versus those who plead) receive higher fines and fees than non-Latinos, women, those convicted of non-drug offenses and those who pled to their charges.
Examines the sentencing practice of monetary sanctions. Analyzes national and state-level court data to assess the sentencing of fines and fees, and uses interview data to identify their social and legal consequences. Findings indicate that monetary sanctions are imposed on a substantial majority of the millions of people convicted of crimes in the United States annually, and that legal debt is substantial relative to expected earnings. Argues that indebtedness reproduces disadvantage by reducing family income, limiting access to opportunities and resources, and by increasing the likelihood of on-going criminal justice involvement.