Introduction to special issue on dismantling the shadow carceral state.

The article revisits the concept of the ‘shadow carceral state' introduced by Beckett and Murakawa in 2012, which highlights the expansion of punitive power through legal hybridity, blending civil, administrative, and criminal law. Topics include the institutional diversification of the carceral state, the expansion of punitive practices through reforms to visible institutions, and the impact of legal hybridity in creating new pathways for entanglement with the criminal legal system.