Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Development, Livelihood Strategies, and Carceral Privatization in the U.S. South

研究表明，社区，主要是农村社区，出于各种原因采用监狱和监狱。最常见的情况是，监狱建设被视为创造就业机会和经济增长的一种方式，而当地工业的衰退导致了经济增长的损失。各州选择将监狱设施私有化，希望将管理转移到企业参与者身上，从而节省成本和降低预算。然而，很少有研究研究监狱和监狱私有化对这些设施所在社区的影响。营利性监禁是否有利于因失去工业而缺乏资源的社区？这个项目对学生进行实证、科学数据收集和分析方法的培训，在路易斯安那州东北部的一个农村城市进行案例研究，调查私人监狱的历史增长如何随着时间的推移影响社会和经济社区生活。除了为人类学研究生的培训提供资金外，该项目还将通过将其发现广泛传播给参与与边缘化社区的监禁制度相关的政策对话的组织，以及更广泛地讨论刑事司法管理和私有化的讨论，来增进科学理解。研究将由肯塔基大学的博士生Lee Bullock在Erin Koch博士的指导下进行，以考察无处不在的私有化监禁机构在人们的日常生活、社区及其随着时间的推移对繁荣和生产力的影响。该项目探讨了这一行业在社区内不同群体之间的影响是否存在差异以及影响程度有多大。这项研究发生在路易斯安那州的塔卢拉，在农业和机械化生产衰落后，监狱建设一直是那里的主要雇主。为了在这些问题上获得多代人的视角，研究者采用了以下方法：访谈和多代人的生活史收集；日常活动和公共事件的参与者观察；社区及其周围地区的导游；以及人口普查和社区数据的二次分析。这项人种学研究将对监禁和私有化研究作出贡献，同时产生可推广并适用于这些条件持续存在的其他领域的区域学术。这项研究的发现将产生数据，以更好地理解私有化监禁、紧迫的社会经济问题和美国社区福祉之间的关系。

Research has shown that communities, largely rural ones, adopt prisons and jails for a variety of reasons. Most often, prison building is seen as a way to create jobs and economic growth lost to declines in local industry. States choose to privatize carceral facilities hoping that shifting administration to corporate actors will result in cost savings and lower budgets. However, little research examines the effects of prison and jail privatization on the communities where these facilities are located. Does for-profit incarceration benefit communities experiencing a lack of resources due to loss of industry? This project, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, conducts a case study in a rural city in northeastern Louisiana to investigate how the historical growth of private jails has affected social and economic community life over time. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology, the project would enhance scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations engaged in policy dialogues related to the carceral system in marginalized communities, as well as discussions concerning criminal justice administration and privatization more broadly.The research will be carried out by University of Kentucky doctoral student Lee Bullock, under the supervision of Dr. Erin Koch to examine the lived experience of pervasive privatized carceral institutions in people's daily lives, their communities, and their influence on prosperity and productivity over time. The project explores whether and to what extent the impacts of this industry vary among different groups within this community. The research takes places in Tallulah, Louisiana, where prison building has been pursued as a major employer following the decline of agriculture and mechanized production. To gain multi-generational perspectives on these issues, the researcher employs the following methods: interviews and multi-generational life history collection; participant observation of everyday activities and public events; guided tours of the community and surrounding areas; and, secondary analysis of census and community data. This ethnographic research will make contributions to studies of incarceration and privatization while producing regional scholarship that is generalizable and applicable to other areas where these conditions persist. The findings from this research will produce data to better understand the relationships between privatized incarceration, pressing socioeconomic issues, and community well-being in the United States.