The Impact of Correction Officer Suicide on the Institutional Environment and on the Wellbeing of Correctional Employees, Massachusetts, 2010-2019 (ICPSR 37894)
The project involved a partnership between the research team at Northeastern University, the Office of Strategic Planning and Research at the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MA DOC), the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU) and clinical direct service providers at the Riverside Trauma Center (RTC), a program of Riverside Community Care (RCC).
The research was conducted in two overlapping phases, with findings from the first phase informing key elements of the second phase. In phase one, the Northeastern University research team conducted comprehensive qualitative case studies of the occupational and personal lives of the 20 correction officers and retirees who had died by suicide between 2010 and 2015.
In phase two, researchers collected both qualitative and quantitative data to assess the impacts of the correction officer suicides on correction officers still working in the state's prisons. Researchers conducted on-site and on-shift in-person interviews with 440 officers and administrators to assess the impacts of officer suicide on attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological well-being outcomes. The phase two officer interview opened with questions designed to collect egocentric social network data from each officer and included assessments of behavioral, emotional, and psychological health using validated instruments.
Researchers collected qualitative data for this study which are not currently available. The qualitative data will be made available at a later date.
Predicting Crime through Incarceration: The Impact of Prison Cycling on Crime in Communities in Boston, Massachusetts, Newark, New Jersey, Trenton, New Jersey, and Rural New Jersey, 2000-2010 (ICPSR 35014)
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.
Researchers compiled datasets on prison admissions and releases that would be comparable across places and geocoded and mapped those data onto crime rates across those same places. The data used were panel data. The data were quarterly or annual data, depending on the location, from a mix of urban (Boston, Newark and Trenton) and rural communities in New Jersey covering various years between 2000 and 2010.
The crime, release, and admission data were individual level data that were then aggregated from the individual incident level to the census tract level by quarter (in Boston and Newark) or year (in Trenton). The analyses centered on the effects of rates of prison removals and returns on rates of crime in communities (defined as census tracts) in the cities of Boston, Massachusetts, Newark, New Jersey, and Trenton, New Jersey, and across rural municipalities in New Jersey.
There are 4 Stata data files. The Boston data file has 6,862 cases, and 44 variables. The Newark data file has 1,440 cases, and 45 variables. The Trenton data file has 66 cases, and 32 variables. The New Jersey Rural data file has 1,170 cases, and 32 variables.