PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The city of Blythe, California, is facing a crisis: One of its two prisons, which employs more than 800 people, is expected to close in March 2025.
With so many jobs at stake, the closure is a “potential catastrophe” but can also be seen as “a real opportunity,” according to John Eason, an associate professor of sociology and international and public affairs at Brown University — and an opportunity that Brown students had the chance to help shape through their research and engagement.
In Eason’s Prison Abolition as Policy course, an undergraduate senior seminar at Brown’s Watson Institute for students concentrating in international and public affairs, 18 students had the opportunity to serve as policy advisors to city officials from Blythe and explore ways to mitigate the harmful effects of the prison closure and identify new opportunities the closure may create.
“Given the real-world implications of our findings and the nature of this project being a natural experiment as the town awaits closure in 2025, the learning space is incredibly dynamic and sometimes unpredictable,” said Eason, whose scholarship has explored community dynamics surrounding prison openings and closures, especially in rural communities where the local economy centers around them. “This provides the backdrop for an exciting, ever-changing learning experience.”
In collaboration with the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center and Office of Race and Equity Research, where Eason serves as a senior fellow, students in his Fall 2023 course dedicated the semester to conducting interviews with stakeholders in the city, analyzing that data and devising policy recommendations. The students presented their recommendations to the Blythe City Council — an exercise that served as their final exam.
Reflecting on the experience, students said the class offered an opportunity to conduct hands-on learning that added a new dimension to their studies at Brown.
