Doctoral Dissertation Research: Prisoner Location and the Decennial Census

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

The decennial census of the U.S. Census Bureau is the fundamental mechanism by which political power is allocated across the United States. In all except for two states, prisoners cannot vote, yet their numerical representations in the census count the same as any other resident's. In turn, the political power of nearly 2 million prisoners effectively flows "up the river" with them as they serve their sentences on the day that the census is taken. Current debate and discussion concerning the Bureau's residence rules for prisoners in the United States for future censuses spans a broad range of actors, institutional bodies, and interest groups. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore the intersection of imprisonment and the decennial census and the formation of a policy directive designed to determine where to count the nation's imprisoned population on census day. The project is guided by three convergent research questions. First, by what formal procedure does a specific person go into a specific prison? Second, to what extent does the process of imprisonment reconfigure quantifiable sociospatial relationships? Third, where do prisoners conceive of and locate "the right place" for them to be counted? In order to address these questions, the doctoral candidate will use mixed methods of research. These methods include qualitative analyses of the lived geographies of ex-Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) prisoners using direct observation, personal interviews, and document analysis; and quantitative spatial analysis and mapping using spatial interaction modeling and network analysis of a unique geodatabase built from restricted-access, prisoner-level GDC records, census data, and the prisons themselves. Research results will explain the spatial mechanics of inmate placement, demonstrate the aggregate impact of incarceration on the intra-state political geographies of the United States, and illuminate the sociospatial impacts of incarceration on the incarcerated at the individual level. This research project will contribute important advances to the fields of knowledge related to both imprisonment and the decennial census. This project will have significant implications for geography, sociology, demography, and criminal justice. The project will add critical and rigorous geographic analysis to the ongoing debate surrounding where prisoners will be counted for the purposes of future decennial censuses. This debate will result in a set of policy decisions that affect each jurisdiction within the U.S. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career