20th century
A01=John M. Eason
american studies
Author_John M. Eason
building
Category=JBSC
class distinctions
construction
continuity
correctional facility
cultural
culture
decision making
economics
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
industrial complex
management
placement
political motivations
politics
prison
race
racial concerns
racism
reputation
rural
society
sociology
united states of america
Product details
- ISBN 9780226410203
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 06 Mar 2017
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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For the past fifty years, America has been extraordinarily busy building prisons. Since 1970 we have tripled the total number of facilities, adding more than 1,200 new prisons to the landscape. This building boom has taken place across the country but is largely concentrated in rural southern towns. In 2007, John M. Eason moved his family to Forrest City, Arkansas, in search of answers to key questions about this trend: Why is America building so many prisons? Why now? And why in rural areas? Eason quickly learned that rural demand for prisons is complicated. Towns like Forrest City choose to build prisons not simply in hopes of landing jobs or economic wellbeing, but also to protect and improve their reputations. For some rural leaders, fostering a prison in their town is a means of achieving order in a rapidly changing world. Taking us into the decision-making meetings and tracking the impact of prisons on economic development, poverty, and race, Eason demonstrates how groups of elite whites and black leaders share power.
Situating prisons within dynamic shifts that rural economies are undergoing and showing how racially diverse communities lobby for prison construction, Big House on the Prairie is a remarkable glimpse into the ways a prison economy takes shape and operates.
John M. Eason is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Texas A&M University.
