PROFILE

Profile of Bruce Western PROFILE

Paul Gabrielsen, Science Writer

On a summer afternoon in the late 1990s in New York New York City City’s Tompkins Square Park, sociologist Bruce West- After graduating in 1987, West- ern and his colleague Katherine Beckett engaged in a ern pursued his dream of living conversation that would change the course of their inNewYorkCity,wherehewas research. At the time, Western studied the social pro- admitted to the Graduate Cen- grams of European welfare states. Against the back- ter of the City University of New drop of a park that had seen a surge in drug dealing York, advised by Hungarian so- and homeless encampment in the 1980s, Beckett off- ciologist Ivan Szelenyi. During handedly observed that the United States encom- his first year, Western received passed the disadvantaged not in a welfare state but a visit from Jo McKendry, a in the penal system. fellow Australian and modern Fascinated with the idea, Western began a study of dancer in the city. The two had criminal justice systems, including the social factors that briefly met in Australia and had precede incarceration, the prison experience, and re- mutual friends. “I was one of leased prisoners’ reintegration into society. But long be- the few people that she knew fore Western—a recently elected member of the National in New York,” Western says. Academy of Sciences and a professor of sociology at Har- They later married. vard University—set foot in a prison, he developed a sen- After a year in New York, sibility for justice and equality at his family’s dinner table. however, Szelenyi moved from the City University of New York Brisbane to the University of California, Western’s parents were an unlikely couple in 1950s Los Angeles (UCLA), and West- Bruce Western. Image courtesy of Bruce Australia. His father was a white native-born Australian ern followed. At UCLA, Western Western. studying psychology and his mother was an in- delved deeper into statistics, ternational student from Thailand. They were married learning Bayesian statistical in New York City, where his father studied sociology at methods and historical soci- Columbia University, and then returned to Australia, ology, which examines how societies develop and where Western and his brother were born. change over time. His dissertation (4) compared the Western’s father taught at the University of Queens- historical development of labor unions in both West- land in Brisbane. In the early 1970s, the state of ern Europe and North America. During the final years Queensland was a conservative region with politically of his doctoral studies, Western split his time between strong rural roots. He and his brother, along with their Los Angeles and New York City. His wife’s career mother, stood out as racial minorities. “I definitely saw an tethered her to New York, so when Western gradu- inequality in Australian society,” he says. These in- ated from UCLA in 1993, he looked for positions in equalities became the topics of dinnertime conversation, the northeast. A colleague from graduate school was which often took a sociological tone. leaving a position at Princeton University in New When Western began studying at the University of Jersey, and Western leaped at the opportunity. Queensland, he majored in government to continue exploring questions of justice and inequality. As an un- Princeton dergraduate, Western learned statistical modeling from Western’s move to Princeton proved timely. In the quantitative political science professor David Gow. He 1990s, Princeton’s sociology department grew into also enjoyed writing for the university newspaper. “Ifind one of the preeminent programs in the United States, myself circling back to that sort of writing now,” he says, with the additions of leading sociologists, such as Paul having written articles for outlets such as The New Yorker DiMaggio, Sara McLanahan, Doug Massey, and Viviana (1), Foreign Affairs (2), and the Boston Review (3). Zelizer. “It was an unbelievably productive and collegial

This is a Profile of a recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s Inaugural Article on page 5477 in issue 20 of volume 113.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1710704114 PNAS Early Edition | 1of3 Downloaded by guest on September 26, 2021 environment to be working in,” Western says. “I had (8–10). Beginning in 2012, over the course of 3 years, amazing mentors. It was a dream first job.” Western and his colleagues interviewed 135 men and After developing his dissertation work on labor women who had been released from Massachusetts state markets and unions into a 1997 book, Between Class prisons. The study’s aim was to understand how released and Market: Postwar Unionization in the Capitalist prisoners dealt with employment, health, housing, family Democracies (5), Western began exploring the field of and friends, and other aspects of reintegration into soci- demography through the Office of Population Re- ety. Western conducted many in-person interviews in and search at Princeton. His interest in quantitative mod- around Boston, developing an intimate understanding of eling of race and class demographics served as the the challenges his cohort faced. backdrop for his conversation with Beckett in Tomp- “That got me very close to the ground,” he says. kins Square Park. “People are struggling with untreated mental illness, “The underlying observation was that the way histories of trauma and abuse in childhood, un- the state intervened in the lives of disadvantaged treated addiction, or physical disability. All of that young men was through the criminal justice system human frailty is overlaid on top of the race and ed- rather than through social policy, like education or ucational inequalities in incarceration.” Furthermore, job training programs, as I was seeing in Western people in these environments, he says, are often Europe,” Western says. witnesses and victims of violence and can become Beckett and Western’s 1999 paper (6) examined perpetrators themselves. the short-term and long-term effects of mass in- Going to prison, he found, is not a discrete event. It carceration on United States unemployment rates. In is often the culmination of repeated interactions with the short term, imprisonment reduces the rate of un- the justice system that can derail people from the path employment because prisoners are not counted as of education and training that leads to a successful part of the labor market. In the long term, however, entry into the labor market. “By the time you get sent unemployment rises because released prisoners face to state prison, you’re in your late 20s or your 30s and diminished job prospects. “The whole research pro- the orderly path through the life course that most of us gram was off to the races,” Western says. follow has been completely disrupted,” Western says. Around the same time, Western joined a colleague, Former inmates find their path to be strewn with dis- Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, to teach classes in the maxi- advantages. “Its effects filter down through genera- mum security New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. “To tions,” Western says. be able to speak with any sort of conviction about this Released prisoners often live at the margins of topic I had to be in touch with that world in a direct social systems and can become invisible to social way,” he says. Arriving in the evening, Western and science research, Western found. “When people Fernandez-Kelly first passed through a security check-in come out of prison, they’re often underground in called “the trap,” an airlock-like room: “Like airport various ways,” he says. “They’re doubling up with security but much more intense,” Western says. Once relatives, so they’re not firmly tied to households.” inside, Fernandez-Kelly led Western to the classroom, Western’s Inaugural Article (10) reports the difficul- where he found a class of prisoners in beige jumpsuits ties inherent in keeping disadvantaged populations who broke the tension by greeting Western and involved in a study; high nonresponse rates can bias Fernandez-Kelly warmly. the outcomes of a study, yielding misleading results. “Idon’t think we have social settings like that in free To maintain reliable contact with study participants, society,” Western says of his experiences in prisons. Western and his colleagues gave monetary incen- “Prison often feels tense to me. It definitely felt tense in tives for participation, followed up with participants there.” He found the experience rewarding, however. by phone and mail between interviews, and main- The students were prepared, he says, and engaged tained lists of family or friends who could serve as thoughtfully with each other. “Something quite special secondary contacts. Using those methods, the Bos- intellectually was going on in this space,” he says. ton Reentry Study retained 91% of its participants after 1 year. Boston To learn more about the global scale of the prob- After 14 years of commuting 50 miles to Princeton from lem, Western is now researching how incarceration his home in New York City, Western secured a position affects indigenous populations in Australia. Between at Harvard University, moving with his wife and three the United States and Australia, he is studying how in daughters to the Boston area in 2007. While at Harvard, those nations social problems, such as mental ill- Western served as vice-chair of the National Research ness, drug addiction, and extreme poverty become Council’s Committee on Causes and Consequences of criminal justice problems. “The problem of hard-to- High Rates of Incarceration. The committee’s findings reach populations is an enduring one for me now,” were published in 2014 as “The Growth of Incarceration he says. in the United States” (7). “I gained an overview of the field and the power that social science research could Enduring Connections have on the policy debate,” Western says upon Today, of Western’s three grown daughters, the eldest reflecting on his time as vice-chair. studies classic languages in college and the younger Western’s view on the lifelong impacts of imprison- two, twins, are high school seniors. One is a dancer, ment broadened through his Boston Reentry Study like her mother. The other is engaged in issues of

2of3 | www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1710704114 Gabrielsen Downloaded by guest on September 26, 2021 social justice and equality, like her father. “I’m in awe Western continues his father’s work to bring of the kids,” Western says. Western’s brother, Mark, also awareness of the conditions of the disadvantaged and, a sociologist, teaches at the University of Queensland. hopefully, to bring about meaningful changes in the Both sons have turned their parents’ dinner table con- way societies treat their most vulnerable. “That is one of versations into impactful research and advocacy. our great challenges as a society,” Western says.

1 Western B (2016) The rehabilitation paradox. The New Yorker. Available at www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-rehabilitation- paradox. Accessed May 25, 2017. 2 Western B, Rosenfeld J (2012) Workers of the world divide: The decline of labor and the future of the middle class. Foreign Affairs. Available at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2012-04-20/workers-world-divide. Accessed May 25, 2017. 3 Western B (2012) Crime and punishment. Boston Review. Available at bostonreview.net/author/bruce-western. Accessed May 25, 2017. 4 Western B (1993) Unionization trends in postwar capitalism: A comparative study of working class organization. PhD dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles). 5 Western B (1997) Between Class and Market: Postwar Unionization in the Capitalist Democracies (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, NJ). 6 Western B, Beckett K (1999) How unregulated is the U.S. labor market? The penal system as a labor market institution. Am J Sociol 104:1030–1060. 7 Travis J, Western B, Redburn S, eds (2014) The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences (National Academies Press, Washington, DC). 8 Western B, Braga AA, Davis J, Sirois C (2015) Stress and hardship after prison. AJS 120:1512–1547. 9 Western B (2015) Lifetimes of violence in a sample of released prisoners. RSF 1:14–30. 10 Western B, Braga A, Hureau D, Sirois C (2016) Study retention as bias reduction in a hard-to-reach population. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113:5477–5485.

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