Prison Privatization and Public Discourse

监狱私有化和公共话语

• 批准号: 0925328
• 负责人: Pamela Oliver
• 金额: $ 13.26万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0925328&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Prison; Privatization; Public; Discourse

This project examines newspaper stories about prison privatization in the context of mass incarceration. Delegating a coercive function of the state to private contractors was viewed by some as a fundamental shift in the nature of government, and by others as merely an efficiency measure. Determining whether and how this issue was portrayed in news sources is important for understanding the relation between public discourse and government policy. Relevant news stories are located in electronic archives of four "national" newspapers based in four states for 1985-2005 and regional newspapers located in an additional six states for 1995-2005. These 10 states vary in the extent to which they used private prisons. News stories are coded for the prominence (volume and visibility) of prison privatization discourse, the frames actors used to talk about private corrections (e.g., nature of government, costs, safety), the valence of actors' claims (i.e., support or opposition), and the standing of various types of actors (e.g., corrections administrators, private corrections firms, union leaders, elected officials) in making claims about private corrections. Analysis examines variation in the discourse across time and place in relation to the extent of prison privatization. Some similarities across news sources within time due to media diffusion effects are predicted. Despite these diffusion effects, differences between news sources are also predicted due to state differences in the political salience of the issue and the configuration of political actors. Three types of states are predicted to exist: non-starter, with no private prisons or proposals for them and little news coverage of the issue; unopposed, where prison privatization occurs without controversy and news coverage is scant and concerns cost and efficiency only; and conflict where there are proposals for private prisons, active opposition to them and news coverage that includes critical frames. Results shed light on the evolution of public discourse as both a response to and a constraint on shifting governmental responsibilities.

该项目研究了有关大规模监禁背景下监狱私有化的报纸报道。一些人认为，将国家的强制职能委托给私人承包商是政府性质的根本性转变，而另一些人则认为这仅仅是一种效率措施。确定新闻来源是否以及如何描述这个问题对于理解公共话语与政府政策之间的关系非常重要。相关新闻报道位于 1985-2005 年四个州的四份“全国性”报纸和 1995-2005 年另外六个州的地区报纸的电子档案中。这 10 个州使用私人监狱的程度各不相同。新闻报道的编码是为了监狱私有化话语的突出程度（数量和可见度）、演员用来谈论私人惩教的框架（例如政府的性质、成本、安全）、演员主张的效价（即支持或反对） ）以及各类行为者（例如惩教管理者、私营惩教公司、工会领导人、民选官员）在提出有关私营惩教主张时的地位。分析考察了不同时间和地点的言论变化与监狱私有化程度的关系。预计由于媒体传播效应，不同新闻来源在一段时间内会出现一些相似之处。尽管存在这些扩散效应，但由于问题的政治显着性和政治行为体配置的国家差异，新闻来源之间也会存在差异。预计将存在三种类型的国家： 没有启动的国家，没有私人监狱或私人监狱的提案，并且对此问题的新闻报道很少；无人反对，监狱私有化没有争议，新闻报道很少，只关注成本和效率；以及冲突，有人提议建立私人监狱，但遭到积极反对，新闻报道也包含关键框架。研究结果揭示了公共话语的演变，既是对政府责任转移的回应，也是对政府责任转移的限制。