Presentation Page

To use when presenting the Gates Halifax project for the DSPG Symposium.

Overview

  • US incarcerates more people per capita then anywhere else
  • Incarceration rates: extremely costly for taxpayers
    • Halifax spends $21,000 per inmate and $78 per county resident
  • Goal: social determinants of incarceration & recidivism in Halifax, VA
  • Approach: ecological model
    • How factors at the individual, relationship, community, and policy levels shape behavior


* Workflow: illustrates relationship between factors




Data Sources

  • Exploratory data analysis and mapping for factors:
    • Unemployment, substance abuse, affordable housing, family structure
      Source Topic Description
      Vera Institute for Justice Incarceration County, state, and national incarceration trends
      Virginia State Police Crime Reports Crime Incident-level crime data
      Housing and Urban Development Picture of Subsidized Households Housing Characteristics of subsidized housing population
      Housing and Urban Development Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Housing Details of low-income housing tax credit supported properties
      Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Unemployment rates
      Virginia Department of Health Substance Abuse Opioid prescription and overdose data
      Virginia Department of Health Substance Abuse Excessive drinking data
      National Center for Health Statistics Teen Pregnancy Teen birth rates
      American Community Survey/Decennial Census General Demographics
  • Challenges
    • Lack of relevance to formerly incarcerated population
    • Improper spatial resolution
    • Incarceration vs crime





Findings

Background

  • Halifax is a rural county of 34,000 with 60% of population being White, and 34% being Black
    • Racial disparities in income: White median income ($48,000) vs Black median income ($30,400)





Incarceration, Crime & Arrests

  • Crime, arrest, incarceration & jails vs prisons
  • Prison incarceration rates have consistently increased over the past 3-4 decades





Employment

  • Unemployment is a large indicator of crime and intersects w/ ecological model on multiple levels
  • Halifax has slightly higher unemployment rate than VA avg





Housing

  • Ecological model:
    • Policy: eligibility for low-income opportunities limited by prior convictions
    • Interpersonal: reintegration into the community
  • Size of annual number of jail discharges relative to subsidized housing capacity: 3x
  • Housing accessibility (physical proximity)





Substance Abuse

  • Opioid prescription rates are declining, but still higher than VA and USA
  • Steadily increasing rate of binge drinking
  • Policy level: racial disparities in marijuana possession (and drug-related crime)





Family Structure

  • Family structure highly affects child’s development
  • Teen mothers more likely to drop out of high school, be unemployed, have lower incomes
    • Low levels of family supervision -> high rates of juvenile delinquency (cycle)
  • Teen births, housing opportunities, and racial discrepancies are all important aspects