Browsing by Subject "Prison"
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Item A historical study on penal confinement and institutional life in southern Nigeria, 1860-1956(2013-12) Abiodun, Tosin Funmi; Falola, Toyin; Louis, Roger W; Walker, Juliet E; Charumbira, Ruramisai; House Soremekun, BessieThis dissertation fills an existing gap in Nigerian historiography by exploring the history of penal confinement and prisons in Southern Nigeria. Using archival materials and other historical sources including autobiographies, newspapers and prison writings, this study shows that colonial prisons that were established in Nigeria differed significantly from those that existed in Britain. The idea of using the prison as a reformative tool did not manifest in the colonial context. Ultimately, the colonial prison system established in Southern Nigeria served as a tool used by Europeans for silencing opposition, subduing nationalist forces, harnessing cheap labor and warehousing problem populations including criminals, lepers and lunatics. Penal administration in Southern Nigeria went through many transformative stages. This dissertation contextualizes these changes within the broad context of significant historical events such as the Atlantic Slave Trade, colonial rule, the First World War, the Second World War and the decolonization era. It shows that administrative problems that hamper the development of Nigeria’s penal system in the post-colonial era such as overcrowding, inefficient work force, health problems and inadequate infrastructure began during the colonial era. The penal crisis experienced in Nigeria is indeed a colonial legacy. The first five chapters of the study follow a chronological sequence that covers much ground in the colonial history of Southern Nigeria from 1860 to 1956. In addition, this dissertation explores the history of the prison in Southern Nigeria not only from the official perspective, but also from the perspective of incarcerated colonial subjects. It details the penal experience of nationalists. More importantly, it moves beyond the elitist view by providing information on the penal experience of ordinary criminals whose existence and agency is often ignored or mentioned in passing in mainstream Nigerian history. The last chapter of this study approaches the history of prison in Southern Nigeria from the subaltern perspective. Using official prison documents, prison memoirs, and prisoners’ letters, it explores prison sub-cultures and highlights the different ways in which ordinary prisoners reacted to, coped with, and challenged the carceral element of colonial rule.Item Canary in the Coal Mine: A Profile of Staff COVID Deaths in the Texas Prison System(2022-02) Jones, Alexi; Deitch, Michele; Welch, Alycia“Canary in the Coal Mine: A Profile of Staff COVID Deaths in the Texas Prison System” reveals the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic on prison workers in Texas. Produced by the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, a policy resource center at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, the report finds that, as of January 31, 2022, Texas has had more staff deaths (78) from COVID than any other prison system in the country, at a rate more than three times the national average for prison employees. Most of those who died were custodial workers in direct contact with incarcerated people, and the agency lost over 1000 years of staff experience. COVID deaths and infections are also exacerbating an already severe understaffing crisis in the prison agency. Low vaccination rates among staff and rolled-back protective measures are making matters worse. Given the agency’s lack of transparency about COVID deaths of incarcerated people in Texas, these staff deaths and infections provide a window into the impact that COVID is having in Texas prisons. They serve as a proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” warning that the pandemic is still far from over for people who live and work in prisons. The report recommends strategies to mitigate the continued spread of COVID in custodial settings and to help save lives.Item Chas Moore Interview(2022-03-31) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Chas Moore, founder of the Austin Justice Coalition and anti-racist activist in Austin, TX. Chas shares his story of exposure to deaths and incarceration at a young age and how those traumas shaped his beliefs and drive as an organizer. He talks about being directly exposed to overt racism for the first time in Austin and getting heavily involved in the city’s anti-racism organizing movement. Chas shares how the work of influential Black thinkers and activists as well as his faith have guided his activism. He also discusses challenges like funding, his goals for long-term change, and his hopes for a happier and more peaceful human experience. Content Warning: The following interview contains sensitive material. Please note that the interview includes discussion of anti-Black racial slurs. These subjects will be discussed at 6:15-7:20 (in the transcript p. 2).Item Essays on education, inequality and society(2013-12) Pechacek, Julie Ann; Youngblood, Sandra BlackThis dissertation consists of three chapters on labor economics. The first two chapters focus on education, and the third examines inequality and incarceration. Chapter one explores whether college students strategically delay exiting college in response to poor labor market conditions. It exploits variation in U.S. state unemployment rates to identify the causal impact of unemployment rates on time to graduation. Strategic delay is observed among both men and women. Results indicate that students delay graduation by approximately 0.4 months for each percentage point increase in junior-year unemployment rates, implying the average student delays by approximately half a semester during a typical recession. Effects are greatest for men with freshman majors in education, professional and vocational technologies, the humanities, business, and the sciences, and for women in education, the sciences, or undeclared. Delays are robust to fluctuations in students’ in-school work hours, earnings, and job market conditions. Chapter two assesses the impact of over-the-counter access to emergency contraception on women’s educational attainment using variation in access produced by state legislation since 1998. Approximately 5% of American women of reproductive age experience an unintended pregnancy annually, indicating a significant unmet need for contraception. Results indicate that cohorts with greater access to emergency contraception are more likely to graduate from high school and attain the associate’s degree. Effects for high school graduation are most pronounced among black women, while increases in associate’s degree attainment are driven primarily by white and Hispanic women. Chapter three explores the relationship between incarceration and generational inequality. Using a calibrated OLG model of criminal behavior with race, inheritance and endogenous education, I calculate how much longer prison sentences, and a higher likelihood of capture and conviction contribute to income inequality. Results indicate that changes to criminal policy mirroring those of the “tough on crime” legislation of the 1980s and 1990s, including an 18% increase in criminal apprehension and a 68% increase in prison sentence length, have little impact on inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. Instead, the model provides evidence that these enhanced enforcement measures deter crime and decrease incarceration rates.Item Geographies of confinement : America's carceral bulwark, 1973-2022(2022-11-28) Barber, Judson Grant; Thompson, Shirley Elizabeth; Hoelscher, Steven D; Meikle, Jeffrey L; Smith, Mark CThis study examines two distinct planes along which prisons have become naturalized in the United States during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, paying special attention to the ways in which the carceral institution has been used to generate capital value. Focusing on museums and tourist attractions, narrative fiction, visual media, and real estate development in rural California, this study considers the prison’s novel importance to the cultural and economic function and survival of the state and nation at-large. The proliferation of the prison, in both real space and the cultural imaginary, has produced barriers to abolition that now appear indestructible and insurmountable. The primary attempt in this study is to demonstrate why and where these barriers now exist, and to consider what cultural and economic revolutions must occur for the prison to be supplanted by more productive, equitable, and just alternatives as activists and academics have championed for decades. The prison, like taxes or insurance, is one of many things we have come to assume the existence and necessity of in American culture. This assumption is so deeply rooted that we’ve lost the ability to analyze its integrity objectively and critically. This interdisciplinary project contributes to discourses in cultural geography, museum studies, and carceral studies by examining the prison as a broad cultural event rather than as a narrow social or political issue, locating the crux of abolition most prominently in economic dependence and cultural assumption.Item HIV and AIDS in the Russian Federation : prisons as a case study of risk environments and agency(2011-05) Severson, Jamie LeeAnn; Buckley, Cynthia J.; Angel, Jacqueline LThis thesis explores Russian prisons as risk environments for the spread of HIV through intravenous drug use. The Russian HIV epidemic is extremely fast growing, and though exact prevalence rates are unknown, the epidemic is now considered generalized as estimated prevalence rates exceed one percent of the Russian population. After decades of foreign-aid and interventions in African nations have largely failed to address the HIV epidemic, social scientists now attribute HIV infection to risk environments created by low levels of social cohesion and a lack of agency. Within my research, I explore Russian male prisons and the role risk environments and agency play in the spread of HIV. I review recently published literature, government statistics, as well as reports published by non-governmental organizations. I then analyze and interpret these data, draw conclusions and inferences regarding the spread of HIV within Russian prison risk environments.Item "I don't want no membership card" : a grounded theory of the facets, responses, and outcomes of involuntary membership in US and Norwegian prisons(2010-05) Peterson, Brittany Leigh; Browning, Larry D.; Ballard, Dawna I.; Stephens, Keri K.; Gossett, Loril M.; Szmania, Susan J.This study investigated the experience of involuntary membership in U.S. and Norwegian prisons. The purpose of the study was two-fold: 1) offer a comprehensive understanding of the construct of membership, and 2) develop a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Merton, 1968; Weick, 1974). The research questions posed were designed to clarify the experience of involuntary membership and included: What facets comprise involuntary membership?, In what ways do individuals describe the experience of involuntary membership?, and In what ways does Norwegian involuntary membership differ from U.S. involuntary membership in a prison setting? In order to answer these questions, I conducted 62 in-depth interviews in the United States and Norway with incarcerated individuals (n = 41), correctional officers (n = 10), wardens (n = 3), and prison teachers (n = 8). The interviews were dispersed across four separate prison facilities. I took a grounded theoretical approach to the data and used the constant comparative method in my analysis. Participants spoke about involuntary membership in relation to 10 distinct facets: Activities, Belongings, Body, Communication, Mind, Organizational Boundary Management, Space, Sound, Relationships, and Time. In addition, the participants in the study described their experience with involuntary membership in relation to their 1) responses to, and 2) outcomes of the phenomenon. Similarities and differences in the experience of involuntary membership between the United States and Norway were also discussed. The three-macro themes in this study came together to create a substantive, mid-range theory of involuntary membership in prisons. In order to explicate this theory, I offered a Process Model of Involuntary Membership and subsequently elucidated the theory using a structurational ontology (see Banks & Riley, 1993; Kirby & Krone, 2002) or worldview (Kilminster, 1991). This study contributes to communication research and theorizing by illuminating and addressing the limitations of previous scholarship. Theoretical implications and future research directions are also discussed.Item Jaime "Mujahid" Fletcher Interview(2022-01-25) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher, founder of IslamInSpanish. Jaime shares about his youth, during which he was involved in gang activity in Alief then developed his value of education in Colombia. After his conversion to Islam at twenty-three, Jaime began to translate Islamic literature and thought into Spanish so his Latino family and community could better understand Islam. Jaime goes on to describe the growth of IslamInSpanish from its inception as a family project to its current state as a vibrant community in the Centro Islamico in Alief. He also discusses the social justice projects IslamInSpanish is involved in and shares his advice for working toward social change.Item Negena Haidary Interview(2021-03-28) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Negena Haidary, an Afghan-American Shia Muslim woman. Negena speaks about her relationships and experiences with her family, particularly as a first-generation American. She speaks about the impacts of 9/11 on her family, the difficulty of finding community as a member of a minority group, and the ongoing act of balancing immigrant parents’ expectations with the necessity of participating in American culture. Negena also discusses the challenges of navigating mental health and finding one’s own life path, sharing the wisdom she has gathered through her own journey of healing and growth.Item Reducing Texas’ prison population through release policy changes(2011-05) Steck, Patrick Jonathan; Stolp, Chandler; Deitch, MicheleTexas’ prison population has grown rapidly over the last twenty years, tripling in size from 45,000 prisoners to more than 150,000 today. This report looks at ways to reduce the prison population by changing policies affecting odds of a prisoner’s release. Often, advocates focus on sentencing reform. Yet, with nearly all prisoners returning to society after serving time in prison, the release side of the prison system should be given due attention. With policy considerations of cost, public safety, racial disparity, and impact on communities, this paper looks at how policies can be adjusted to reduce the prison population using the many “back-end” policy levers that are available. Specific recommendations include giving drug offenders slightly greater odds at release and making a concerted effort to reduce the racial disparity in prison release practices.