{"id":49,"date":"2018-12-20T10:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2019-04-12T18:58:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T22:58:37","slug":"log-11","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-aramirez\/data-collection-logs\/log-11\/","title":{"rendered":"March 27"},"content":{"rendered":"

My research will analyze the elements of neoliberalism present within the American criminal justice system, focusing upon two central components of the U.S. judicial system: court procedures and incarceration. My research for the preceding week has centralized gathering information about the internal conditions of privatized prisons and learning more about the political influence and implications of the privatization of prisons. A short documentary produced by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, <\/span>Prisons for Profit: 18 Months in the Life of the Nation\u2019s First Prison Sold for Profit<\/span><\/i>, follows the events that have transpired after the State of Ohio sold the Lake Erie Correctional Institution to Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) in 2011. The correctional facility experienced a dramatic increase in the number of inmates, a greater number of reported assaults and other acts of violence, and a spike of drug accessibility and usage within the complex. The documentary features accounts from key figures of Conneaut City (the location of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution), including Neil LaRusch, a Conneaut City Councilman, and Paul Reynolds, who worked as a Corrections Officer within the prison. Both narratives provided by Neil and Paul demonstrate that the worsening conditions in the Lake Erie Correctional Institution were attributed to the privatization of the facility. <\/span><\/p>\n

In an effort to drastically cut costs and maximize profits, the CCA eliminated rehabilitation programs, fired medical and safety personnel, and ignored facility needs at Lake Erie. LaRusch contends that rehabilitation programs were abandoned not only as a means to \u201creduce operational costs and satisfy shareholders,\u201d but also as a means of ensuring that recidivism rates (and thus, future profits) remain high [10:23-10:31]. Indeed, LaRusch states, \u201cYou\u2019re in the business to make a profit. Do you want those people rehabilitated?…As a profiting entity, as a business, I think you\u2019re going to take as many bad people as you can get because that\u2019s where your money is coming from\u201d [14:03-14:27]. In addition to the absence of rehabilitation programs, the CCA purposefully disregarded the failing, poor physical structures of the prison complex: \u201cbathroom facilities…were two and three toilets down out of five, sinks constantly not working, they had inmates sleeping on the floor, [and] they had three inmates to a two-bunk cell\u201d [16:59-17:10]. The<\/span> Prisons for Profit<\/span><\/i> documentary provided me with valuable information about how internal conditions of private prisons exemplify ideals of neoliberalism, including accumulation by dispossession, economic efficiency, and individualized responsibility. <\/span><\/p>\n

The second portion of my data collection involved learning more about the role politics played in the increase of the privatization of prisons. However, I did not find Lauren-Brooke Eisen\u2019s \u201cThe Politics of Private Prisons\u201d chapter in <\/span>Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration<\/span><\/i> particularly helpful. Eisen\u2019s work focused on the what is already clear about the privatization of prisons: it is a bipartisan issue that Republicans favor and Democrats notably disfavor. The most helpful information I obtained from Eisen\u2019s work concerns the limited power the executive branch possesses to curtail the privatization of prisons, and the extreme unlikeliness that Congress would \u201cpenalize states that contract with private prisons to house inmates\u201d (135). Although Eisen\u2019s work did not provide useful data, it did help me realize that while the politics of the privatization of prisons is important, it is not necessarily a central element of my research. Unless I can find compelling, notable data on politics and privatization soon, it is likely a component of my research that I will drop.<\/span><\/p>\n

My next steps include researching more about the history of the privatization of prisons and beginning to gather more information regarding the first component of my research: the privatization and inequities that exist in legal representation. I have a series of books that I have reserved in the library to read, including <\/span>Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money From Mass Incarceration<\/span><\/i> edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright, <\/span>Are prisons obsolete?<\/span><\/i> by Angela Y. Davis, <\/span>Prison Privatization: The Many Facets of a Controversial Industry<\/span><\/i> edited by Byron Eugene Price and John Charles Morris, and <\/span>Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective<\/span><\/i> by Michael A. Hallett. <\/span><\/p>\n

Notes from <\/span>Prisons for Profit: 18 Months in the Life of the Nation\u2019s First Prison Sold for Profit<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n