Collaborative Research: Pennsylvania Solitary Confinement Study

合作研究：宾夕法尼亚州单独监禁研究

• 批准号: 1823854
• 负责人: Jessica Simes
• 金额: $ 9.26万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-06-15 至 2021-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1823854&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Pennsylvania; Solitary; Confinement

The U.S. penal population is the largest in the world, but imprisonment in America is also distinguished by its extensive use of solitary confinement, defined as incarceration in a cell for 23 hours each day with limited access to visits from outsiders or rehabilitative programs. Solitary confinement is an important but understudied part of the experience of punishment in the United States. The scant available evidence suggests solitary confinement is associated with poor health and adjustment to society after incarceration. The current project, the Pennsylvania Solitary Confinement Study (PASS), will analyze conditions of penal confinement and their effects on health and well-being, labor force participation after prison release, and recidivism. The project will provide a multidimensional account of the conditions and effects of extreme confinement in a large U.S. prison system. The project will also improve our understanding of how solitary confinement is used, and how it may have significant and long-lasting effects. A key broader impact of the project is to enable a research-driven national policy effort to reevaluate the use and policies of solitary confinement. Quantitative studies of the effects of solitary confinement have relied on observational data to estimate weakly-identified causal effects. The current project will use detailed statewide prison records (2007-2017) to estimate causal effects of solitary confinement on long-term outcomes, exploiting the random assignment of hearing examiners to prison misconduct cases. It combines field surveys of incarcerated men and prison staff in a solitary confinement unit with a quantitative state-wide analysis of administrative prison records. The longitudinal survey data collection combines an analysis of prison records, a survey and neurocognitive battery administered to incarcerated men (N=117, including a main sample of 99 and a pretest sample of 18) recently admitted to solitary confinement and then three months later, and interviews with prison staff (N=22). Analysis of this quasi-experiment will yield estimates of the effect of solitary confinement on employment and recidivism. Because prior research on solitary confinement has been based on clinical interviews with small samples often in the context of litigation, the survey extends research by collecting data at scale with a standardized instrument. Survey responses at two points in time allows a comparison of the conditions of solitary confinement with the general prison population. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts will illuminate the relationship between prisoners and staff and shed light on the mechanisms by which solitary confinement produces long-term impacts. The proposed study will contribute new data and analysis for policymakers and scholars seeking to understand and address the conditions of penal confinement in the United States.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国的刑事人口是世界上最大的人，但在美国的监禁也以其广泛使用单独的监禁方式（定义为在牢房中定义为监禁23个小时）的区别，而从局外人或康复计划中访问的访问有限。孤独的监禁是美国惩罚经验的重要部分。可用的证据很少表明单独监禁与监禁后的健康状况不佳和对社会的适应有关。当前的项目是宾夕法尼亚州单独的监禁研究（PASS），将分析刑罚条件及其对健康和福祉的影响，释放监狱后的劳动力参与以及累犯。该项目将对美国大型监狱系统中极端监禁的状况和影响提供多维说明。该项目还将提高我们对单独监禁的使用方式以及如何产生重大且持久的效果的理解。该项目的主要广泛影响是实现以研究驱动的国家政策努力来重新评估单独监禁的使用和政策。 单独监禁作用的定量研究依赖于观察数据来估计弱识别的因果关系。当前的项目将使用详细的全州监狱记录（2007-2017）来估计单独监禁对长期结果的因果影响，从而利用听证检查人员的随机分配到监狱不当行为案件。它结合了对被监禁的男子和监狱工作人员的现场调查，并在全州范围内对行政监狱记录进行定量分析。 纵向调查数据收集结合了对监狱记录的分析，对被监禁的男性管理的调查和神经认知电池（n = 117，包括99的主要样本和18个预测试样本）最近被承认单独监禁，然后在三个月后接受了监狱工作人员的访谈（n = 22）。对这种准体验的分析将产生单独监禁对就业和累犯的影响的估计。由于对单独监禁的先前研究一直是基于经常在诉讼背景下对小样本进行的临床访谈，因此该调查通过使用标准化工具大规模收集数据来扩展研究。在两个时间点的调查响应可以比较与普通监狱人口单独监禁的条件。对访谈成绩单的主题分析将阐明囚犯与员工之间的关系，并阐明单独监禁产生长期影响的机制。拟议的研究将为寻求理解和解决美国刑事监禁条件的决策者和学者提供新的数据和分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来获得支持。