The economic effects of prison closures on local communities

Chirakijja, Janjala

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111155

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Prisons increased public employment through direct job creation, but effects did not spill over into other areas of the economy (Chirakijja, 2022b). Similarly, Chirakijja (2023) studies the local economic effects of prison closures from 2011 to 2017. This study found that closures were associated with significant drops in public employment, but these effects did not spill over into the private sector.…”

Section: The Political Economy Of Prison Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prison Bust: Declining carceral capacity in an era of mass incarceration

Harris,

Sims,

Eason

et al. 2023

Punishment & Society

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While there is a growing literature investigating the causes and consequences of the US prison boom—the tripling of prison facilities between 1970 and 2000—much less is known about current patterns of prison closures. We use novel data capturing the universe of prison closures (N = 188) from 2000 to 2022 to identify and characterize what we term “the prison bust”—the period since 2000 when prison closures began to climb and eventually eclipse new prison building. We show that the prison bust is, in part, a consequence of development-oriented prison-building policies that aggressively used prisons to stimulate struggling local economies. The bust is primarily concentrated in the counties that pursued prison building most aggressively, reflecting a highly cyclical and reactionary pattern of prison placement and closure. We also show that, relative to counties with at least one prison but no closures, closures are concentrated in metro counties with stronger local economies and multiple prisons. Overall, we highlight the prison bust as an important new era in the history of US punishment and provide a new dataset for investigating its causes and consequences. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.

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Section: The Political Economy Of Prison Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%