Graduation Year
2020
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Politics and International Relations
Reader 1
Vanessa Tyson
Reader 2
David Andrews
Rights Information
© Corey G Smith
Abstract
This thesis explores how the building of a prison impacts local political behaviors and public opinion. Economic development during the late 20th century left agricultural and manufacturing based regions of the United States struggling to maintain a reliable sense of financial prosperity, thereby propelling rural regions into the prison-building business. In this thesis, I analyze the voting data of five rural Californian towns concerning Proposition 7 (1978) and Proposition 47 (2014). Through this data analysis and a synthesis of the literature on prison host communities, this thesis investigates whether the construction of a prison has influenced political action regarding prison reform over the past 40 years.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Corey, "Rural Prison Politics: The Impact of Correctional Facilities on Community Voting Behavior in California" (2020). Scripps Senior Theses. 1490.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1490
