The Prison Fix: Race, Work, and Economic Development in Elmira, New York

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2012 The Prison Fix: Race, Work, and Economic Development in Elmira, New York Andrea R. Morrell The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1673 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] The Prison Fix: Race, Work, and Economic Development in Elmira, New York by Andrea R. Morrell A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2012 © 2012 ANDREA R. MORRELL All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. April 27, 2012 Dr. Leith P. Mullings Chair of Examining Committee April 27, 2012 Dr. Gerald Creed Executive Officer Dr. Michelle Fine Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore Dr. Jeff Maskovsky Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract The Prison Fix: Race, Work, and Economic Development in Elmira, New York by Andrea R. Morrell Adviser: Professor Leith Mullings Based on more than a year of ethnographic and archival research in Elmira, New York and, to a lesser extent, New York City, this dissertation analyzes the social, economic, and political processes through which Elmira, New York was transformed by the construction of the Southport Correctional Facility in 1988 as a project of economic development during a period of massive expansion of the New York State prison system. It focuses on the unfolding of the project of mass incarceration and its impact on the lives of Elmira’s citizens and workers, as well as the men incarcerated in Elmira’s prisons and their families. Through ethnographic work with prison guards, formerly incarcerated men and women and their families, and a broad cross section of Elmirans, I trace the tensions of constructing and maintaining two prisons that incarcerate nearly 2,500 men. I show how the project of prison expansion into Elmira was an attempt to “solve” the social, economic, and political crises of deindustrialization and economic restructuring with a prison “fix.” By using the prison town as a unit of analysis, I argue in this dissertation that the prison is part of a regime that extends beyond the prison’s walls. I demonstrate that despite increasingly intricate fences and barriers aimed at maintaining the separation between the incarcerated men and “free” Elmira, ideas, money, and relationships circulate between increasingly connected places. An ethnographic focus on the prison town, as opposed to the prison as a distinct institution or an arbiter of ghetto relationships, allowed me to iv delineate the ways in which the prison leaks into the everyday life of the city of Elmira. Thus, the Elmira Correctional Facilities and the Southport Correctional Facilities are a part of a carceral state, equally political and economic, that makes use of Elmira as a place of confinement. v Acknowledgements I was deeply moved by people’s willingness to share their lives and their stories with me; I am grateful to the women and men whose narrations of Elmira provide the architecture of this dissertation. A few generous people, who shall not be named for reasons of confidentiality, led me to the right people and places so I could begin my research. Librarians at the Steele Memorial Library and archivists at the Chemung Valley Historical Society graciously provided access to materials and guided my research. I feel very fortunate to have had Leith Mullings as my adviser and mentor during graduate school. I thank her for her leadership during the often challenging process of researching and writing this dissertation. Jeff Maskovsky was interested and supportive of my work throughout graduate school. I am grateful for his thoughtful scholarship and his guidance. Michelle Fine’s expertise in the subject matter at hand and experience in working with the Department of Correctional Services were immensely helpful. I was thrilled to have Ruth Wilson Gilmore join the faculty late in my career at the Graduate Center. Her thinking and writing were foundational to my understanding of the political economy of prisons. My colleagues in the Dissertation Writing Group from 2008-2010 gave terrific comments and helped me sort through my thoughts: Raja Abillama, Vivian Berghahn, Rebecca de Guzman, Lynn Horridge, Amy Jones, Tina Lee, Adrienne Lotson, Nada Moumtaz, Andy Newman, Ceren Ozgul, Claudine Pied, Ted Powers, Jeremy Rayner, Ted Sammons, Vikki Stone, Wendy Williams, and Janette Yarwood. Particular thanks go to Tina Lee, who knew what to do next at every turn vii in graduate school and who kindly read an early draft of this dissertation. Rebecca Hill read an early version of chapter four and gave essential comments and suggestions for future reading. Thanks to Carolyn Fisher for terrific last minute copy editing. The research for this dissertation was made possible by funding from the Irving Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and a Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. My parents, Carole and Michael Morrell, opened their home to me for a very pregnant year while I conducted my research. They patiently answered my questions about Elmira and allowed my silences and my need to keep my data confidential. I am grateful for their life-long encouragement of my work and my choices. My mother-in-law, Janet Fraidstern, quite literally made this dissertation possible. Janet, and my father-in-law Leslie Fraidstern, cared for my daughter for countless hours that I spent writing. I am indebted to them for the freedom to work. Thanks also to Smyrna Pimintel, Megan Jaworski, Linda Perrotta, Dawn Campbell, Lorraine O’Hanlon, and Tiffany Santiago who each cared for Bernadette while I wrote. My biggest thanks go to the love of my life— my beshert— Josh Fraidstern. His thoughts, his work, and his love for New York are all over these pages. I dedicate this work to him and to our daughter, Bernadette, with hope for a long life together in a just world. vii Table of Contents List of Images ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review: Anthropology and Mass Incarceration 31 Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Constructing Southport: Small City Urban Development and the Prison “Solution” 53 Chapter 4: Doing my Zero to Eight: Prison Work in a Prison Town 86 Chapter 5: Policing the Prison Town 131 Chapter 7: Prison Town in Crisis: A Label “Sewn Tightly on the Community” 194 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Toward a Political Economy of the Carceral State 211 Works Cited: 220 viii List of Images 1. Photo by Dougtone, via Flickr. Intersection of Broadway and Lyon and Southport Streets, entering the Southside of City of Elmira from the Village of Southport, 2003, page 14. 2. Photo by George Lion, February 22, 1988, Elmira Star-Gazette, with the caption: "Community support is reflected in this sign that appears in front of Tom's on Cedar Street in the Town of Southport on Friday,” page 74. 3. Photo by George Lion, Elmira Star-Gazette, B1, April 16, 1987: “[Child] was a spectator at Wednesday’s prison groundbreaking. She came with [her grandfather], page 75. 4. Photo by John P. Cleary. Elmira Star-Gazette, July 8, 2007, 1A.aption, as printed in the Star-Gazette: “Armed Elmira Correctional Facility officers stop traffic around 8:30am Monday on West Water Street in Elmira as they search for two escaped convicts.” Photo courtesy of the Photo by John P. Cleary, Page 155. ix Chapter 1: Introduction “They used to say Elmira was the glider capital of the world, now they say it’s the prison capital of the world.1 We’ve got two prisons. Like I said, there’s 600 plus jobs at Elmira [Correctional Facility]. And when Southport came, that’s created another 400 jobs… That’s an awful lot of money… I know that the county legislatures, the Senate, the state senators, the state congressmen, they lobbied hard to get that here. Because this started to be a real depressed area. I mean every industry was moved out of here.” Gordon, retired Correction Officer In the fall of 1985, a few months after the New York Times asserted that “[p]erhaps no other small city in the Northeast provides a more vivid example of how American manufacturing has declined,” Elmira, New York was chosen as the site of another new state prison (Lueck, 1985:A1). A small city of just under 30,000 people in central New York State, Elmira was seen as a good candidate for one of the 29 new prisons proposed to be built in New York State under the leadership of Governor Mario Cuomo (Schlosser 1998: 57). The city was already home to the Elmira Correctional Facility, built in 1876, and was reeling from the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Some city leaders and residents were eager for the relatively high-paying jobs in the proposed prison. “Great! Call Elmira a prison town, call it anything you want,” an editorial in the local paper, the Elmira Star-Gazette encouraged, and keep up that “spirit of cooperation,” in order to secure a “fat new payroll” for the area (Elmira Star-Gazette 1985a). When the Southport Correctional Facility opened in 1988, the increased number of state jobs available for Elmirans at the prison fueled high hopes for a brighter economic picture for the 1 A glider is an engineless plane.

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