2018 Urban Research Award: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment

Sociology Assistant Professor Jessica Simes seeks to bridge the gap in sociological research between the political and economic causes of the prison boom and the neighborhood-level impacts of mass incarceration to help explain a phenomenon found in small cities and suburbs: a disproportionately high rate of imprisonment, compared to larger cities. For example, in 1973, 40 percent of people admitted to prison came from Boston neighborhoods; today, only 19 percent of those entering prison come from Boston.

This project aims to fill two significant research gaps pertaining to the spatial pattern of mass incarceration: one, on the historical extent of urban and non-urban patterns of incarceration, and two, the role of local city conditions and governance practices in excess punishment found within small cities.

Professor Simes will build a Massachusetts-wide database of city budgets to study how local expenditures and revenue related to courts, policing, jails and other criminal justice institutions are correlated with imprisonment rates, and how differences in city practices help explain disproportionately higher rates of imprisonment in small cities and suburbs.

Publications

Simes, Jessica. 2018. “Place and Punishment: The Spatial Context of Mass Incarceration.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 34, no. 2: 513–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9344-y.

Simes, J. T. (2021). Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment. Univ of California Press.

View more projects funded through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards