Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Prison Growth: From Chain Gangs to Work Release Centers and Supemax Prisons, Florida, 1955 - 2005

题目：博士论文研究：监狱增长的政治：从锁链监狱到工作释放中心和超级监狱，佛罗里达州，1955年至2005年。主要研究者：约翰·哈根；【摘要】在过去的30年里，美国经历了前所未有的监禁增长；目前大约有220万人关押在美国的监狱和拘留所。佛罗里达州监禁人数的增长就是这一趋势的典型代表：自1974年以来，佛罗里达州立法者已经拨款建造了超过55个主要的惩教机构和额外的56个劳改营和劳动释放中心，以容纳平均每年增长20%的囚犯人口。佛罗里达州现在关押着大约85,000人，监狱人口仅次于德克萨斯州、加利福尼亚州和联邦监狱系统。以佛罗里达州为例，本研究项目比较了围绕监狱系统的三个立法决定时期：监狱前繁荣时期（1955-1972），最初的监狱繁荣时期（1973-1987）和监狱繁荣后期（1988-2005）。该项目结合了档案研究、访谈和二手数据，以回答州议员如何对犯罪控制做出选择；在做出可能扩大监狱系统的决定时，他们考虑了哪些因素；什么样的社会、政治和经济条件支持他们的决定；最后，这些因素和条件是否以及如何在过去的50年里发生了变化。这种独特的国家级研究设计有望产生挑战和发展当前美国政治与惩罚关系理论的发现。在此过程中，研究结果将描绘出一幅更全面、更复杂的图景，即国家政策制定者在监狱增长中所扮演的角色，因为他们既不是渴望复仇的公众的唯一受害者，也不是新刑罚国家的自私建筑师。这项研究还有望产生更广泛的实际影响，因为它出现在监狱资源与其他优先支出资源（包括国内安全）竞争的关键时刻。立法者如何决定为哪些项目提供资金对公民和社区非常重要，尤其是对那些受监禁人数上升影响最严重的非洲裔美国人社区。因此，研究结果将传播给学术界、政策制定者和社区团体，他们可以利用这些知识帮助立法者制定更有效、危害更小的预防和控制犯罪的手段。

Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Prison Growth: From Chain Gangs to Work Release Centers and Supermax Prisons, Florida, 1955 to 2005Principle Investigator: John Hagan; Co-investigator: Heather SchoenfeldAbstractThe United States experienced an unprecedented rise in imprisonment over the last thirty years; approximately 2.2 million people now reside in U.S. prisons and jails. The growth of imprisonment in Florida typifies this trend: since 1974, Florida's state legislators have appropriated money to build over 55 major correctional institutions and an additional 56 work camps and work release centers in order to accommodate an inmate population that grew an average of 20% per year. Florida now imprisons approximately 85,000 people, a prison population exceeded by only Texas, California, and the federal prison system. Using Florida as a case study, this research project compares three periods of legislative decisions around the prison system: the pre-prison boom (1955-1972), the initial prison boom (1973-1987), and the late prison boom (1988-2005). The project combines archival research, interviews and secondary data to answer how state legislators made choices about crime control; what factors they considered when making decisions that could expand the prison system; what social, political and economic conditions underpinned their decisions; and finally, if and how these factors and conditions changed over the course of the last fifty years. This unique state-level research design promises to generate findings that challenge and develop current theories on the relationship between politics and punishment in the United States. In doing so, the findings will paint a more comprehensive and complex picture of state policymakers' role in prison growth as they are neither solely victims of a vengeance-hungry public, nor self-serving architects of the new penal state. The research also promises to have a broader, practical impact, as it comes at a critical point in time when resources for prisons are competing with resources for other spending priorities, including domestic security. How legislators decide what to fund will be very important to citizens and communities, especially to those African-American communities most adversely impacted by the rise in imprisonment. Consequently, the research findings will be disseminated to academics, policymakers and community groups who can use the knowledge to help legislators create more effective, and less detrimental, means of crime prevention and control.