Doctoral Dissertation Research - Effects on a Captive Audience: Civic Engagement Post-Incarceration

博士论文研究 - 对被囚禁的观众的影响：监禁后的公民参与

• 批准号: 0617505
• 负责人: Henry Brady
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2007-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0617505&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effects; Captive

PI: Henry A. Brady and Amy E. LermanSES: 0617505For an increasingly large segment of society, incarceration has replaced some of the more traditional life events as a defining experience. This is particularly true among ethnic minority and low-income populations; African American men are significantly more likely to spend time in prison than in the military, and are twice as likely to spend time in prison as they are to earn a Bachelor's degree.In this study, I seek to address the question of whether some types of prisons may actually have negative effects on inmates, once they leave the institutional environment. The experience of incarceration may inculcate people with particular values, identities, attitudes towards authority, and coping mechanisms, and some of these lessons may discourage pro-social participation in community life. In other words, living within some types of prisons may teach people ways of thinking and behaving that actually diminish their likelihood of returning to society as productive, law-abiding citizens.The goal of this project is to draw clear connections between specific characteristics of prisons and a variety of individual outcomes, from recidivism, to social and family relationships, to employment and participation in community organizations. This study takes advantage of several unique opportunities. Most centrally, because inmates are essentially assigned at random to prisons in California, and because prisons in the state differ dramatically in their culture, this research uses a natural experiment to establish the impacts of different prison cultures on the attitudes and behaviors of individuals once they leave prison.As a key part of measuring each prison's culture, I have undertaken a survey of Correctional Officers in the state of California. The survey will gather critical data on a host of topics at each of California's prisons, including understaffing, staff preparedness and training, institutional violence, quality of rehabilitation programs, level and types of gang activity, and officers' attitudes towards inmates and towards correctional policy. At the same time, I have also gathered a wide variety of data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on the attitudes and behaviors of parolees. Some of these data come from a program adopted by the state only a few months ago, and this study will represent the first time they have been analyzed for use in social research.It is my hope that this study will shed light on a variety of different ways that laws and institutions can affect the attitudes and behaviors of citizens. This represents a significant contribution to scholarly work in the areas of institutional bureaucracy and policy effects. Yet the far broader impact of this research will be on those communities that each year absorb a growing number of citizens released from America's penal system.Despite the panoply of research on prisons over the last several decades, little work has addressed the effects of penal policies on society at large. Prisons are often researched as isolated communities, rather than as extensions of the low-income neighborhoods, cities and towns from which most incarcerated people come. As a result, prisons are generally considered to be distinct from community life rather than seen as playing a central role in the myriad problems of poverty and crime that many communities face. Meanwhile, some 650,000 citizens each year move back and forth, and often back again, between those communities and the prison system.By identifying how the particular experiences people have while incarcerated affect the civic attitudes and behavior they assert once they return to society, it may be possible to design institutions that increase people's potential for healthy post-release reintegration, and help them return to society as a benefit to, rather than a burden on, the communities to which they return.

PI：亨利A.布雷迪和艾米E. LermanSES：0617505对于越来越多的社会阶层来说，监禁已经取代了一些更传统的生活事件，成为一种决定性的经历。这是特别真实的少数民族和低收入人群中，非洲裔美国人的男子更有可能花时间在监狱里比在军队中，并有两倍的可能花时间在监狱里，因为他们是赚取学士学位。在这项研究中，我试图解决的问题，是否某些类型的监狱实际上可能对囚犯产生负面影响，一旦他们离开制度环境。监禁的经历可能会灌输人们特定的价值观、身份、对权威的态度和应对机制，其中一些教训可能会阻碍亲社会参与社区生活。换句话说，在某些类型的监狱中生活可能会教会人们一些思维方式和行为方式，而这些思维方式和行为方式实际上会减少他们作为有生产力的守法公民重返社会的可能性。本项目的目标是明确监狱的具体特点与各种个人结果之间的联系，从累犯到社会和家庭关系，再到就业和参与社区组织。这项研究利用了几个独特的机会。最重要的是，由于囚犯基本上是随机分配到加州的监狱，而且由于该州的监狱在文化上有很大的差异，因此本研究使用自然实验来确定不同监狱文化对个人离开监狱后的态度和行为的影响。我对加州州的惩教官员进行了一次调查。该调查将收集加州每个监狱的一系列主题的关键数据，包括人员不足，工作人员准备和培训，机构暴力，康复计划的质量，帮派活动的水平和类型，以及官员对囚犯和惩教政策的态度。与此同时，我还从加州惩教和康复部收集了关于假释犯态度和行为的各种数据。其中一些数据来自几个月前才被国家采用的一个项目，这项研究将代表它们第一次被分析用于社会研究。我希望这项研究将揭示法律和制度影响公民态度和行为的各种不同方式。这是对机构官僚主义和政策影响领域学术工作的重大贡献。然而，这项研究的更广泛影响将是那些每年吸收越来越多从美国刑罚系统释放出来的公民的社区。尽管过去几十年来对监狱进行了大量研究，但很少有工作涉及刑罚政策对整个社会的影响。监狱通常被作为孤立的社区进行研究，而不是作为大多数被监禁者来自的低收入社区、城市和城镇的延伸。因此，监狱通常被认为与社区生活不同，而不是被视为在许多社区面临的无数贫困和犯罪问题中发挥核心作用。与此同时，每年约有65万公民在这些社区和监狱系统之间来回流动，而且经常是来回流动。通过确定人们在被监禁期间的特殊经历如何影响他们重返社会后所主张的公民态度和行为，也许有可能设计出一些机构，增加人们在释放后健康重返社会的潜力，并帮助他们重返社会，使他们返回的社区受益，而不是负担。