Doctoral Dissertation Research: Prisoner Location and the Decennial Census

美国人口普查局每十年进行一次的人口普查是在美国分配政治权力的基本机制。除两个州外，所有州的囚犯都不能投票，但他们在人口普查中的数字代表与其他居民的数字代表相同。反过来，近200万囚犯的政治权力实际上随着他们“逆流而上”，因为他们在人口普查当天服刑。目前关于该局为未来人口普查制定的美国囚犯居住规则的辩论和讨论涉及广泛的行为者、机构机构和利益团体。这个博士论文研究项目将探讨监禁和十年一次的人口普查的交集，并制定一项政策指令，旨在确定在人口普查日计算国家监禁人口的地点。该项目由三个趋同的研究问题指导。首先，特定的人通过什么正式程序进入特定的监狱？第二，监禁的过程在多大程度上重新配置了可量化的社会空间关系？第三，囚犯会想到并找到“合适的地方”来清点他们的人数？为了解决这些问题，博士候选人将使用混合的研究方法。这些方法包括通过直接观察、个人访谈和文件分析，对前乔治亚州惩教局（GDC）囚犯的生活地域进行定性分析；利用空间交互建模和网络分析，对一个独特的地理数据库进行定量空间分析和制图，该数据库由限制访问、囚犯级GDC记录、人口普查数据和监狱本身建立。研究结果将解释囚犯安置的空间机制，展示监禁对美国州内政治地理的总体影响，并在个人层面上阐明监禁对被监禁者的社会空间影响。这一研究项目将促进与监禁和十年一次人口普查有关的知识领域的重要进展。这个项目将对地理学、社会学、人口学和刑事司法产生重大影响。该项目将为正在进行的辩论增加批判性和严格的地理分析，围绕未来十年一次的人口普查，囚犯将被计算在哪里。这场辩论将导致一系列影响美国各个司法管辖区的政策决定。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生提供支持，使他们能够建立强大的独立研究事业

The decennial census of the U.S. Census Bureau is the fundamental mechanism by which political power is allocated across the United States. In all except for two states, prisoners cannot vote, yet their numerical representations in the census count the same as any other resident's. In turn, the political power of nearly 2 million prisoners effectively flows "up the river" with them as they serve their sentences on the day that the census is taken. Current debate and discussion concerning the Bureau's residence rules for prisoners in the United States for future censuses spans a broad range of actors, institutional bodies, and interest groups. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore the intersection of imprisonment and the decennial census and the formation of a policy directive designed to determine where to count the nation's imprisoned population on census day. The project is guided by three convergent research questions. First, by what formal procedure does a specific person go into a specific prison? Second, to what extent does the process of imprisonment reconfigure quantifiable sociospatial relationships? Third, where do prisoners conceive of and locate "the right place" for them to be counted? In order to address these questions, the doctoral candidate will use mixed methods of research. These methods include qualitative analyses of the lived geographies of ex-Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) prisoners using direct observation, personal interviews, and document analysis; and quantitative spatial analysis and mapping using spatial interaction modeling and network analysis of a unique geodatabase built from restricted-access, prisoner-level GDC records, census data, and the prisons themselves. Research results will explain the spatial mechanics of inmate placement, demonstrate the aggregate impact of incarceration on the intra-state political geographies of the United States, and illuminate the sociospatial impacts of incarceration on the incarcerated at the individual level.This research project will contribute important advances to the fields of knowledge related to both imprisonment and the decennial census. This project will have significant implications for geography, sociology, demography, and criminal justice. The project will add critical and rigorous geographic analysis to the ongoing debate surrounding where prisoners will be counted for the purposes of future decennial censuses. This debate will result in a set of policy decisions that affect each jurisdiction within the U.S. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career