RUI: Internal Knowledge Production and Legitimacy within the Private Prison Industry

This study investigates the way for-profit companies within the corrections industry create or reinforce industry legitimacy through their marketing strategies. Several research questions are examined, including How companies market their goods and services, How their marketing strategies create or reinforce industry legitimacy, and how potential buyers (i.e., government officials and law enforcement agents) respond to these marketing strategies.

A key broader impact of the research is increased public knowledge about how the corrections industry operates, and the potential impact of such knowledge on public accountability.

This research examines how for-profit corporations of the corrections industry and their clients (chiefly government officials and law enforcement agencies) frame and market industry goods and services, and how such framing and marketing assist in creating and maintaining industry legitimacy. The data collection methods include ethnographic field work (observation of industry conference activities), content analysis of industry brochures/promotional materials, and semi-structured informal qualitative interviewing of industry representatives at professional conferences.

Key research questions are examined using an event ethnography across six distinct corrections industry events. Data used for the study include (1) observations of the interactions between companies associated with the corrections industry and other event attendees, (2) the marketing materials companies provide to potential consumers at these industry events, (3) field notes stemming from informal interactions with people attending the conference, and (4) about thirty semi-structured interviews with people associated with the corrections industry. Data is analyzed using a semi-inductive frame analysis technique.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.