More retribution: Kelly Tabbutt, Incarceration as Carceral System Space of Native Racialized (In)Equality: Comparing Sentencing Outcomes Between Native and White People Incarcerated in US Federal and State Prisons, PhD dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

More retribution: Kelly Tabbutt, Incarceration as Carceral System Space of Native Racialized (In)Equality: Comparing Sentencing Outcomes Between Native and White People Incarcerated in US Federal and State Prisons, PhD dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 2024

06Sep24

Abstract: Overincarceration of Indigenous peoples across North America is a critical and deep-rooted social issue. Racialized structural inequality are theorized to underpin racialized inequalities in carceral system outcomes including sentence length, monetary penalties, and supervision. Settler colonialism is theorized to underpin these inequalities per Native people. Taking structural settler colonialism for granted and applying the intertwined frameworks of carceral capitalism and necrocapitalism, my research answers three interrelated questions: How do economic precarity and Native visibility influence racialized differences in: 1) sentence length, 2) the likelihood of being assessed legal financial obligations in addition to incarceration, and 3) the likelihood of expecting post-release supervision? My research relies primarily on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of Prisoners. My research utilizes linear regression to examine the outcome of sentence length and binary logistic regression to examine the outcomes of the likelihood of fines or fees and expecting supervision, applying the same models to two separate subsamples for the Native and white incarcerated people surveyed. My research findings indicate a limited influence per Native visibility and no influence per individual-level economic precarity on the outcomes for the Native subsample. Though individual-level measures of economic precarity did have some influence on the outcomes for the white subsample. Further, the group-level measures of white economic precarity influenced these outcomes across subsamples and Native economic precarity had a limited influence for both subsamples. My research contributes to the literatures examining both racialized carceral system inequality and Native structural inequalities by investigating patterns of inequality across states, demonstrating at least limited applicability of critical theories of carceral system inequalities to Native experiences, and, most significantly, illuminating directions that future research in the area of Native racialized carceral system inequalities must take to unpack this complex structural issue.

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