Prison Privatization and Public Discourse

监狱私有化和公共话语

• 批准号: 0925328
• 负责人: Pamela Oliver
• 金额: $ 13.26万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0925328&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Prison; Privatization; Public; Discourse

This project examines newspaper stories about prison privatization in the context of mass incarceration. Delegating a coercive function of the state to private contractors was viewed by some as a fundamental shift in the nature of government, and by others as merely an efficiency measure. Determining whether and how this issue was portrayed in news sources is important for understanding the relation between public discourse and government policy. Relevant news stories are located in electronic archives of four "national" newspapers based in four states for 1985-2005 and regional newspapers located in an additional six states for 1995-2005. These 10 states vary in the extent to which they used private prisons. News stories are coded for the prominence (volume and visibility) of prison privatization discourse, the frames actors used to talk about private corrections (e.g., nature of government, costs, safety), the valence of actors' claims (i.e., support or opposition), and the standing of various types of actors (e.g., corrections administrators, private corrections firms, union leaders, elected officials) in making claims about private corrections. Analysis examines variation in the discourse across time and place in relation to the extent of prison privatization. Some similarities across news sources within time due to media diffusion effects are predicted. Despite these diffusion effects, differences between news sources are also predicted due to state differences in the political salience of the issue and the configuration of political actors. Three types of states are predicted to exist: non-starter, with no private prisons or proposals for them and little news coverage of the issue; unopposed, where prison privatization occurs without controversy and news coverage is scant and concerns cost and efficiency only; and conflict where there are proposals for private prisons, active opposition to them and news coverage that includes critical frames. Results shed light on the evolution of public discourse as both a response to and a constraint on shifting governmental responsibilities.

这个项目考察了在大规模监禁的背景下关于监狱私有化的新闻报道。一些人认为，将国家的强制职能授权给私人承包商是政府性质的根本性转变，而另一些人则认为这只是一种效率措施。确定新闻来源是否以及如何描述这一问题，对于理解公共话语和政府政策之间的关系非常重要。1985-2005年在四个州的四家“全国性”报纸的电子档案中有相关的新闻报道，1995-2005年在另外六个州的地区性报纸中有相关新闻。这10个州在使用私人监狱的程度上有所不同。新闻故事的编码是为了突出监狱私有化话语(数量和可见度)、行为者谈论私人惩教的框架(例如，政府的性质、成本、安全)、行为者主张的价格(即，支持或反对)以及各种行为者(例如，惩教管理人、私营惩教公司、工会领导人、民选官员)在提出关于私人惩教的主张时的地位。分析考察了不同时间和地点的话语变化与监狱私有化程度的关系。由于媒体扩散效应，预测了不同新闻来源在时间上的一些相似之处。尽管有这些扩散效应，但由于各国在问题的政治重要性和政治行为者配置方面的不同，新闻来源之间的差异也是可以预测的。预计将存在三种类型的国家：不可能，没有私人监狱或对这些监狱的提议，对这一问题的新闻报道很少；无人反对，监狱私有化没有争议，新闻报道很少，只涉及成本和效率；冲突，有关于私人监狱的提议，对它们的积极反对，以及包括关键框架的新闻报道。这些结果揭示了公共话语作为对政府责任转移的回应和制约的演变。