Angela LaScala-Gruenewald

My research focuses on the relationship between punishment, laws, and political economy, with an emphasis on the everyday operations of criminal legal organizations, such as police, prisons, and courts. I investigate how public institutions serve as sites where race and class inequalities are shaped and produced, often through routine bureaucratic practices. As a sociologist, I analyze legal organizations as social spaces influenced by their spatial context, access to resources, and institutional logics. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms—beyond individual bias—that structure how resources are distributed, harm is legitimized, and authority is exercised by institutions empowered to control and punish people. Identifying these processes can help explain the persistence of mass incarceration and the uneven implementation of more recent decarceral policies.

My current book project examines the political development and use of monetary sanctions in suburban courts. I connect macro-level policy decisions to the meso-level processes that shape law-in-action and produce racialized patterns of punishment across municipalities.

In addition to my own research, I have contributed to projects on the effects of police chokehold bans, the impact of cash assistance for people leaving prison, and the use of court-mandated alternatives to incarceration, such as treatment programs or community service.