Judah Schept is a Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. Grounded in the interdisciplinary field of Critical Prison Studies, his work examines the history, political economy, and cultural logics of the carceral state. He is the author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia (New York University Press, 2022) and Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion (New York University Press, 2015). He is co-editor of The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration (Verso Books, 2024). His writing can also be found in journals such as Radical Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, Punishment and Society, Social Justice, Crime, Media, Culture, the Boston Review, Inquest, and The New York Times. Judah serves as the book review editor for Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict, and World Order. He has been active with numerous organizations and campaigns centered on decarceration, decriminalization, and abolition. He holds a PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Vassar College.

Work by Judah Schept advocating for a reprioritization of spending in Letcher County, Kentucky.

New York Times Guest Essay, Eastern Kentucky Needs Flood Relief, Not Another Federal Prison

Building Community Not Prisons Website

Books by Judah Schept

Coal, Cages, Crisis, The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia (NYU Press, April 2022)

The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration by Jack Norton, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs and Judah Schept (Verso, January 2024)