Early 21st century penal reform: A comparative analysis of four states' responses to the problems of mass incarceration

Schoenfeld, Heather; Campbell, Marci K.

doi:10.1111/lapo.12226

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 73 publications

(109 reference statements)

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“…In order to understand why prisoner's rights accountability systems fail, we compare two case studies of accountability environments in two states over twenty years . The case studies are drawn from a larger project that compares state-level criminal justice reform efforts across six US states (Schoenfeld and Campbell 2023). One aspect of the larger project examines how prison conditions litigation interacts with attempts to reduce state prison populations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States

Schoenfeld,

Rhoten,

Campbell

2024

Law Soc. Inq.

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In recent years US prisons have failed to meet legally required minimum standards of care and protection of incarcerated people. Explanations for the failure to protect prisoners in the United States focus on the effects of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) and lack of adequate external oversight. However, very little scholarship empirically examines how different systems of accountability for prisoners’ rights work (or do not work) together. In this article, we introduce an accountability framework that helps us examine the prisoners’ rights “accountability environment” in the United States. We then compare two post-PLRA case studies of failure to protect incarcerated women from sexual assault in two different states. We find that the prisoners’ rights accountability environment is a patchwork of legal, bureaucratic, professional, and political systems. The patchwork accountability environment consists of a web of hierarchical and interdependent relationships that constrain or enable accountability. We argue that ultimately the effectiveness of prisoners’ rights accountability environments depends on whether protecting prisoners’ rights aligns with the priorities of dominant political officials. Our argument has implications for efforts to improve prison conditions and incarcerated people’s well-being.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States

Schoenfeld,

Rhoten,

Campbell

2024

Law Soc. Inq.

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An opportunity for abolition: McCleskey, innocence, and the modern death penalty decline

Drummond,

Norris

2024

Law & Policy

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For more than two decades after Gregg v. Georgia (1976), use of the death penalty greatly expanded across the United States. Since 2000, however, it has declined significantly. Perhaps the most notable explanation for this decline is the contemporary focus on wrongful convictions. In this paper, we aim to contextualize the modern death penalty decline, and its connection with innocence, through the theoretical lens of social movements and collective action. We argue that dual opportunities reshaped the modern anti‐death penalty movement. First, the McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) ruling affirmed the federal courts' resistance to abolition and inspired activists to begin shifting toward state‐level political abolitionism. Activists then took advantage of the developing interest in wrongful convictions. Specifically, innocence‐related abolitionist activities in Illinois reinvigorated the anti‐death penalty movement, expanded the advocacy network, and fundamentally reframed the debate around capital punishment in the United States. We suggest that, collectively, these dual opportunities reshaped the anti‐death penalty movement into one that emphasized strategies reaching beyond constitutionality and propelled the movement into the twenty‐first century with a foundation for successful political abolitionism.

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Leveraging the insights of depth: A staged strategy for building qualitative case studies of American state‐level policy

Basseches,

Campbell,

Schoenfeld

2024

Social Science Quarterly

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ObjectiveThis article identifies and explains the need for qualitative case studies of U.S. state‐level public policy and politics before providing researchers with a practical roadmap for how to proceed.MethodsWe first review relevant research from political science and sociology to establish the need for qualitative policy‐focused state‐level case study research. We then lay out a three‐stage approach for case study research design and data collection.ResultsWe find that qualitative case study research into state‐level politics and policy making is useful for developing original theories that move beyond those developed at the federal level, for distinguishing between states and state policies in ways that are not easily measurable, and for conducting research that attends to variation in the meaning of policy design within different state contexts. We further find that barriers to conducting such research can be reduced by following a three‐stage strategy that we elaborate.ConclusionState‐level policy making yields essential processes and outcomes that social scientists across disciplines want to understand. Relying exclusively on quantitative methods will result in incomplete knowledge acquisition. Qualitative case studies, while time‐consuming, are worthwhile and achievable. Researchers seeking to conduct this research can follow a three‐stage strategy to make the process more manageable.

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Early 21st century penal reform: A comparative analysis of four states' responses to the problems of mass incarceration

Cited by 3 publications

References 73 publications

Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States

Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States

An opportunity for abolition: McCleskey, innocence, and the modern death penalty decline

Leveraging the insights of depth: A staged strategy for building qualitative case studies of American state‐level policy

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