Depopulating Holding Centers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

这项研究扩展了我们对从拘留中心释放如何影响个人及其家庭福祉的科学理解。2019冠状病毒病大流行标志着美国一些社区的变化，例如，为保持社交距离和保护健康，收容临时个人的设施减少了人口。本项目利用数万名此类人员的释放，调查从拘留中心释放如何影响家庭福祉，包括经济稳定、健康和福祉、与主要社会机构的接触以及儿童的教育成果。这项研究的结果将为联邦、州和地方各级的控股实践决策提供信息。本研究将采用纵向、混合方法、多视角的研究设计，对300户家庭成员持有状况发生变化的家庭进行随访。首先，该项目将对以前被关押的个人进行多次电话调查，以了解个人和家庭的长期影响。其次，该项目将调查和采访以前被关押人员的家庭成员（如配偶、子女）。第三，该研究将比较居住在加州的研究家庭亚组与同一时期在加州健康访谈调查（CHIS）中观察到的具有代表性的家庭样本。这使得研究结果能够进行人口水平的比较，包括考虑到社区在COVID-19大流行期间面临的同时挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

This study expands our scientific understanding of how release from holding centers affects the wellbeing of individuals and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic marked a change in some communities in the United States, such that holding facilities for transitory individuals were depopulated to allow for social distancing and protect health. This project takes advantage of the release of tens of thousands of such individuals to investigate how release from holding centers affects household wellbeing, including economic stability, health and wellbeing, engagement with key societal institutions, and children’s educational outcomes. The findings from this study will inform decision-making on holding practices at the federal, state, and local levels.This study will use a longitudinal, mixed-methods, and multi-perspective research design to follow up to 300 households that experienced changes to the holding status of a household member. First, the project will conduct multiple waves of telephone surveys with formerly held individuals to capture individual and household impacts over time. Second, the project will survey and interview family members (e.g., spouse, child) of formerly held individuals. Third, the study will compare a subgroup of study households residing in California to a similarly-situated, representative sample of households observed in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) during the same time period. This allows the study’s findings to make population-level comparisons, including accounting for concurrent challenges faced by communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.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.