What Happens and What Counts: Resident Assessments of Prison Impacts and Their Communities

• NCJ Number: 154663
• Journal: Humboldt Journal of Social Relations Volume: 17 Issue: 1/2 Dated: (1991) Pages: 212-237
• Author(s): K Carlson
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 26 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: NIJ Reprint Series. Reprinted with permission from the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations.

Annotation

This study reviewed the literature on the impact prisons have on their host communities as assessed by residents.

Abstract

Overall prisons tend to provide considerable economic benefits to their host communities in terms of direct employment, local purchasing, and inmate labor, which in turn stimulate and contribute to other positive economic developments. In general, it seems that prisons have not impeded the operations of other industries, lowered real estate prices, or created a negative community image. Seven factors predominated in the research described: the objective impacts themselves, community and prison characteristics, expectations, circumstances of siting, institutional features and operations, recent events and their consequences, and individual values and lifestyle preferences. Taken together, the extent to which these factors apply in a given prison site can help identify how residents are likely to feel about the prison and its effects. 29 references