John M. Eason
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226410203
- eISBN:
- 9780226410487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226410487.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter introduces the concept of the prison town—a nonmetropolitan municipality that has secured and constructed a prison for a federal, state, or private operator—as a strategic site to ...
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This chapter introduces the concept of the prison town—a nonmetropolitan municipality that has secured and constructed a prison for a federal, state, or private operator—as a strategic site to investigate the intersection of race, spatial disadvantage, and the expansion of the criminal justice system. Forty years ago, there were 511 prison facilities in the United States. Since then we have embarked on an unparalleled expansion, constructing 1,152 new facilities. This dramatic growth in prison building is known as the prison boom. Because prison building is often portrayed as a dichotomous decision for communities by describing the process that culminated in the placement of the Forrest City Federal Correctional Facility (FCFCF), I argue that we can begin to understand the multiple social, political, and economic shifts that drove the United States to triple prison construction in just over thirty years. Forrest City’s campaign to win a prison helps explain how rural communities get from NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) to PIMBY (Please in My Backyard).Less
This chapter introduces the concept of the prison town—a nonmetropolitan municipality that has secured and constructed a prison for a federal, state, or private operator—as a strategic site to investigate the intersection of race, spatial disadvantage, and the expansion of the criminal justice system. Forty years ago, there were 511 prison facilities in the United States. Since then we have embarked on an unparalleled expansion, constructing 1,152 new facilities. This dramatic growth in prison building is known as the prison boom. Because prison building is often portrayed as a dichotomous decision for communities by describing the process that culminated in the placement of the Forrest City Federal Correctional Facility (FCFCF), I argue that we can begin to understand the multiple social, political, and economic shifts that drove the United States to triple prison construction in just over thirty years. Forrest City’s campaign to win a prison helps explain how rural communities get from NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) to PIMBY (Please in My Backyard).
Sara Wakefield and Christopher Wildeman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198810087
- eISBN:
- 9780191847257
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198810087.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter first briefly introduces readers of some arguments made in an earlier work, Children of the Prison Boom (2013). This book made three core arguments, the first of which was that 25 per ...
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This chapter first briefly introduces readers of some arguments made in an earlier work, Children of the Prison Boom (2013). This book made three core arguments, the first of which was that 25 per cent of recent birth cohorts of African-American children could expect to experience the imprisonment of a father. In addition, the book outlined a host of theoretical mechanisms through which paternal incarceration could affect child wellbeing. Finally, Children of the Prison Boom generates estimates of how mass imprisonment might have affected Black-White inequality in childhood wellbeing in the United States. The chapter then broadens these arguments beyond the narrow confines of the United States and the Black-White dichotomy.Less
This chapter first briefly introduces readers of some arguments made in an earlier work, Children of the Prison Boom (2013). This book made three core arguments, the first of which was that 25 per cent of recent birth cohorts of African-American children could expect to experience the imprisonment of a father. In addition, the book outlined a host of theoretical mechanisms through which paternal incarceration could affect child wellbeing. Finally, Children of the Prison Boom generates estimates of how mass imprisonment might have affected Black-White inequality in childhood wellbeing in the United States. The chapter then broadens these arguments beyond the narrow confines of the United States and the Black-White dichotomy.
