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

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

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.