Rural Disadvantage, Stigma, and Prison Placement
John M. Eason, 2009. Working PaperDespite nearly 70 percent of the 1100 plus prison facilities being sited in non-metropolitan areas since the prison boom, there is a dearth of knowledge explicating the process of rural prison placement. Guided by theories on neighborhood disadvantage, growth machine politics, and a case study of prison placement in a non-metropolitan Southern town, I argue that concentrated disadvantage and stigma are key mechanisms in rural prison placement. Rural disadvantage comprises high levels of concentrated poverty and racial segregation. Stigma concerns ascribing a marred reputation to people and place based on race and concentrated disadvantage. Longitudinal data gathered using a mixed-method community-based approach revealed that local political leaders formed a pro growth coalition across otherwise divisive racial lines as a mechanism to diffuse stigma related to their burgeoning rural ghetto and stabilize their failing economy. Implications for future research are discussed.
Prison Placement as Reputation Management
John M. Eason, 2009. Working PaperWhile nearly 70 percent of the 1100 plus U.S. prisons facilities constructed since 1970 were in non-metropolitan areas, there is little scholarly knowledge on how these communities perceive prison placement. Scholars characterize prison placement as a zero-sum game where non-metropolitan White communities economically prosper or suffer by siting a prison. Guided by theories on environmental justice and a case study of a non-metropolitan Southern town I show how rural community leaders process the economic benefits and stigma of prison placement. Longitudinal data gathered using a mixed-method community-based approach revealed that local political leaders frame prison placement as a mechanism to diffuse stigma and signal the economic recovery of the town. Stigma concerns a marred reputation from concentrated racial and economic disadvantage. Implications for future research are discussed.
Decomposing Residential Segregation Patterns: The Ecological Impact of Prisons on Rural Communities
John M. Eason, Daniel T. Lichter, and Dominico Parisi, 2009. Working PaperPrison-based economic development strategies are often viewed as a way to reverse the fortunes of declining rural communities. Most studies on prison placement, however, find that prisons either have negative impacts (King, Mauer, Huling 2003) or provide little economic benefit to rural communities (Hooks 2004; Glasmeier and Farrigan 2007). But little if any research has evaluated the changing racial and ethnic mix of impacted communities or of changing racial relations. In this paper, we investigate the link between prison placement, migration, and residential segregation in rural communities. Using rural block level census data from the 1990 and 2000 census and data consisting of the roughly 1,700 prison facilities operating in the U.S., we examine how prisons impact racial composition in rural communities. Blacks and Hispanics represent a disproportionate and growing share of in the U.S. prison population; the prison population therefore has contributed disproportionately to population growth and racial change in communities where prisons are located. This paper examines the impact of prisoner “in-migrants” on measures of residential segregation. Specifically, using data for the 1990 and 2000 censuses, we compare patterns of racial segregation in communities that recently placed new prisons with other demographically-similar rural communities. We expect that newly constructed prisons will impact the ecology of rural communities differently than migration to other rural communities. Preliminary research suggests that the placement of new prisons exacerbates racial segregation, amplifies place-to-place variation in racial residential segregation, and distorts conventional (and often salutary) interpretations of recent changes in rural community segregation. Prisons significantly impact the racial composition and segregation of rural communities, while potential obscuring our understanding of demographic change and racial relations (i.e., as measured by migration and counts and indexes of residential segregation) and migration.
African Americans and Rural Ghettos: Issues of Race, Place, and Social Identity
John Eason, Raymond Garrett-Peters, and Linda Burton, 2009. Working Paper.In this article we discuss the recent emergence of rural ghettos and how they influence the social identity of African Americans residing within and around them. Rural ghettos are defined as areas of concentrated disadvantage (Sampson and Sharkey 2008) within micropolitan (González Wahl and Gunkel 2007) communities marked by stigma from high concentrations of racial minorities, concentrated poverty, and the effects of mass incarceration. While rural ghettos and urban ghettos share many similar features we argue that social and personal identities are key elements distinguishing rural and urban ecology. Identity here refers to processes involved in individuals acquiring a sense of belonging to particular class strata and relationship networks that are constructed within and in reaction to rural ghettos. We argue that our current understanding of African Americans and their social identities relative to place are primarily based on community studies of low-income African Americans in urban ghettos, and more recently, African families in middleclass Americans residing within and around them. Rural ghettos are defined as areas of concentrated disadvantage (Sampson and Sharkey 2008) within micropolitan (González Wahl and Gunkel 2007) communities marked by stigma from high concentrations of racial minorities, concentrated poverty, and the effects of mass incarceration. While rural ghettos and urban ghettos share many similar features we argue that social and personal identities are key elements distinguishing rural and urban ecology. Identity here refers to processes involved in individuals acquiring a sense of belonging to particular class strata and relationship networks that are constructed within and in reaction to rural ghettos. We argue that our current understanding of African Americans and their social identities relative to place are primarily based on community studies of low-income African Americans in urban ghettos, and more recently, African families in middleclass and suburban settings (Lacy 2007; Pattillo 2007, Lacy 2007). With the exception of a few notable works (Duncan 1999, Lyson and Falk 1993, Lichter 2007, Stack 1996) the lives of African Americans residing in rural ghettos remain invisible and questions concerning the forms rural African American ghettos take and how they might influence individual’s social identity, virtually unaddressed. What are the features of rural ghettos? How do rural ghettos shape the social identity of African Americans who reside within or frequent them? We address these questions in several ways. First, we discuss the emergence of rural ghettos delineating the political, institutional, and other processes that bring them into being. Second, we describe how rural ghettos might influence African Americans’ social identity by comparing and contrasting three narratives of identity tied to rural place. The first narrative involves non-migratory African-Americans, or those who have lived in the same rural communities all their lives. The second comprises low-income urban African- Americans who have migrated to rural areas because of available public or subsidized housing opportunities (cf. Sampson and Sharkey 2008). The third narrative represents African-Americans who are back-migrants or as Stack (1996) characterizes them, African-Americans who are “called to home.” We contend that the social identity (e.g., class membership) of individuals within the three groups is differentially shaped by the features and mechanisms involved in the emergence of rural ghettos. These different characterizations will help us understand the heterogeneity of African- American in rural space offering new conceptualizations of the interplay of identity and place.