Conflict and resistance

Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to express my gratitude for those who supported me through the process of researching and writing this dissertation. I am indebted to the respondents of this study for offering me their time and expertise, as well as the administrators of the Iowa Department of Corrections and the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women for approving my research project and facilitating data collection. I would also like to thank my mentor and advisor, Dr. Sarah Harkness for her guidance and patience, as well as the other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Karen Heimer, Dr. Mike Sauder, Dr. Marina Zaloznaya, and Dr. Jacki T. Rand for providing comments on earlier drafts of this document. I would also like to thank Nicole Oehmen, JiHye "JJ" Park, and Dr. James Wo for providing feedback on earlier drafts and conference presentations that were based upon this work.iii SCHOLARLY ABSTRACTIn this project, I sought to understand how understood and implemented by individuals who work within the criminal justice system. I center the project at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW), where I collected interviews in the summer and fall of 2016. I interviewed 38 individuals, including ICIW staff, Department of Corrections (DOC) staff, prison volunteers, and prisoner advocates. Additionally, I conducted participant observations from summer 2016 to summer 2017 including monthly meetings of the Iowa Board of Corrections and meetings at different local advocacy groups. I also used archival data from state historical archives, the Iowa Department of Corrections, and Iowa Legislative Archives to provide a historical and contextual basis for the contemporary interviews and observations.Using constructivist grounded theory as an analytic method, I employed a multi-stage analysis process that began with memo writing and initial category development during the early stages of data collection, I further explored those themes upon re-entry to the field, and once all of the data was collected, I engaged in line-by-line coding to further specify categories. During this process, I coded for respondents' ideologies and decision-making arguments for or against a policy change, what they identified as science, and what respondents thought were the limits of science and research in the correctional setting.I found that all of the respondents supported rehabilitative correctional models, but disagreed on how prisons should achieve those goals. Some respondents felt that science and research could be used to fulfill humanitarian approaches to handling prisoners, such as treating prisoners with respect, while others felt that "what works" could be used to fulfill utilitarian goals, such as keeping the public safe. DOC administrators, however, often framed evidencebased practices (EBP) as a way to achieve the goals of bureaucratic efficiency and used these iv tools to minimize "irrational" approaches and increase economic efficiency. Many respondents, in turn, became skeptical of EBP and the DOC's reliance on statist...