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: 1823846
• 负责人: Bruce Western
• 金额: $ 15.74万
• 依托单位: Columbia 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=1823846&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.

美国的囚犯人数是世界上最多的，但美国的监禁也以其广泛使用单独监禁而闻名，单独监禁的定义是每天在牢房中监禁23小时，限制外界探视或康复计划。单独监禁是美国惩罚经验中一个重要但研究不足的部分。现有证据不足表明，单独监禁与监禁后健康状况不佳和适应社会有关。目前的项目，宾夕法尼亚州单独监禁研究（PASS），将分析刑事监禁的条件及其对健康和福祉的影响，监狱释放后的劳动力参与和累犯。该项目将对美国大型监狱系统中极端监禁的条件和影响进行多方面的描述。该项目还将提高我们对单独监禁如何使用以及它如何产生重大和持久影响的理解。该项目的一个关键的更广泛影响是使研究驱动的国家政策努力能够重新评估单独监禁的使用和政策。 对单独监禁影响的定量研究依赖于观测数据来估计难以确定的因果效应。当前的项目将利用详细的全州监狱记录（2007-2017年）来估计单独监禁对长期结果的因果影响，并利用随机分配的听证会审查员来处理监狱不当行为案件。它结合了对被监禁男子和监狱工作人员在一个单独监禁单位的实地调查与定量分析行政监狱记录全州。 纵向调查数据收集结合了对监狱记录的分析，对最近被单独监禁的男性（N=117，包括99个主要样本和18个预测试样本）进行的调查和神经认知电池，然后在三个月后，与监狱工作人员（N=22）进行访谈。对这一准实验的分析将得出单独监禁对就业和累犯的影响的估计。由于以前对单独监禁的研究是基于对小样本的临床访谈，通常是在诉讼的背景下，调查通过使用标准化工具收集大规模数据来扩展研究。根据两个时间点的调查答复，可以将单独监禁的条件与一般监狱人口的条件进行比较。对访谈记录的专题分析将阐明囚犯与工作人员之间的关系，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了解和解决美国刑事监禁条件的政策制定者和学者提供新的数据和分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。