Assessing incarceration rates for Alachua county

Background: problem statement and justification

The United States has the highest rates of incarceration of any country in the world, with up to 40 percent of people arrested at any given point returning back to correctional supervision as soon as three years after they return to their respective communities. Interestingly, the high rates of incarceration are not found to be uniform, but rather, are concentrated in specific neighborhoods that see an immense amount of resources spent to jail people when the money could be spent on mitigation measures instead. The first step to  implementing new measures aimed at breaking this cycle is to identify high risk areas for targeting. GIS practitioners are poised to facilitate this latter task because of the ability of GIS tools to prune and manipulate vast amounts of data of different types for distillation into one cohesive map. The urban analysis methodology that these practitioners use is one based on identifying aspects of where people live,study/work,play, and how much mobility they posses in order to determine the ways in which they use the city and analyze how the cities form socially affects them.  

Sustainability has become synonymous with environmental stewardship and economic viability in modern vernacular use but the social equity aspects of the concept have largely been neglected in assessing the sustainability of a given subject. Access to societal resources are just as important to the goals of sustainability as the access to natural resources and is considered a universal human right, a necessary mile marker on the road to economic justice.

Scope and characteristics of the study area

Census 2010 data has identified that more than 23 percent of the population of Alachua county lives under the federal poverty line, this includes 44,285 children. These individuals are struggling to feed themselves along while having restricted access to the societal amenities that we all take for granted every day. With that in mind identifying the at risk areas of this county, and community, is of utmost importance. U.S census data has a long history of being among the most comprehensive,representative and reliable data sets available. The data set comes divided into three sizes, ordered from smallest to largestt, as blocks, block groups , and tracts.

As a team we realized that block groups would be the most appropriate scale for analysis for what we hoped to identify because they were large enough to represent the data we wanted to display in a meaningful way,without being so large they told no story, while responded to population densities becoming smaller and more defined where needed. The area itself extends the 926 square miles of alachua county including the 247,336 residents that call the county home. The study area encompasses the incorporated areas of Alachua,Archer,Gainesville,Hawthorne, High Springs, Newberry and Waldo along with all the agricultural areas. The county is largely made up of agricultural areas or conservation areas with the Gainesville area acting as an urban/economic anchor at the core of the county. The median income for the area of study is $42,818.

Objectives for Accomplishing the Main Goal, Criteria

The main objectives that we were trying to accomplish with this study was in identifying areas in Alachua County that may be at risk for high re-incarceration rates based on where certain criteria coincide. These criteria are not impactful when analyzed separately but we believe that when taken together it is possible to predict where there is a risk for higher than normal re-incarceration rates. The objectives we needed to achieve in order to identify at risk areas were as follows:

• General overview with aims of identifying what kind of information we had and how best this information can be tied to incarceration rates
• Identification of socio-economic(income), extracurricular and general amenities(libraries,bookstores,youth organisations, cultural centers, religious centers and shopping centers), and where high incarceration rates are highest.
• Taking all these various data points and merging them into one map that demonstrates which block groups are most vulnerable.

Categories of very low, low, high and very high were designated for analysis. Areas with low incomes, fewer amenities, or a high rate of incarceration were designated with a higher category score designating their higher risk potential. We posit that if formerly incarcerated individuals go back to communities with low income levels but no amenities to provide some manner of social support or distraction they are more likely to turn to crime to solve issues that stem from their socioeconomic situation. (the systemic institutional bias and prejudices at play mean that there is a greater chance that these individuals will be targeted as well).  

Methodological breakdown

Public Resources (point feature class):

1. Define resources that are accessible to any resident of Alachua County
1. Youth Organizations
2. Bookstores
3. Parks and Gardens
4. Cultural Centers
5. Religious Centers
6. Libraries
2. Convert all feature classes into point features
3. Merge all point feature class resources
4. Add a new field and use field calculator for sum and weights for Spatial Join
5. Spatial Join to Alachua County Census block groups (neighborhood)
6. Manipulate symbology to display sum, by block group, of incarcerated individuals

The map displays the amount of public resources that are available to one living with the block group.

Convicted Incarcerations (point feature class):

1. Collect data on incarceration data in Alachua County, this analysis is only concerned with those that have been convicted
2. Add a new field and use field calculator for sum and weights for Spatial Join
3. Spatial Join to Alachua County Census block groups (neighborhood)
4. Manipulate symbology to display sum, by block group, of incarcerated convicted individuals

The block groups are categorized by number of incarcerated individuals living within them.

Median Income (polygon feature class):

1. Gather census data on median comes in Alachua County by Block Group
2. Add a new field and use field calculator for sum and weights
3. Manipulate symbology to display median income, by block group, or incarcerated convicted individuals

The map displays household median incomes by block group.

Composite Map:

1. Union public resources, convicted incarcerations, and median income at the block group level
2. Manipulate symbology to display predefined weights to show vulnerable neighborhoods in Alachua County
   

   

   The map displays block groups that are considered vulnerable according to the criteria listed above.

ArcGIS Tools Applied:

1. Spatial Join – joining one feature to another based on the spatial relationship
2. Merge – combines selected features of the same layer into one feature
3. Union – calculates the geometric union of any number of feature classes and layers
4. Field Calculator – allows users to calculate data values that are populated into a new or existing field

The model/flowchart provides a simple breakdown on what steps were used to arrive at the composite/final map seen above.

Conclusion

Through the usage of the public resources, convicted incarcerations, and median income data we were able to manipulate the data to show neighborhoods that are at risk for high re-incarceration rates. The various ArcGis tools allowed us to combine and weight all of the data to form one composite map. The dark red block groups on the composite map indicate which neighborhoods are most vulnerable that fit our hand-chosen criteria. Individuals in these block groups that have been previously incarcerated possess a higher possibility to be re-incarcerated due to the lack of amenities and income. Particularly the southeast region of Gainesville contains the majority of neighborhoods with a higher vulnerability. Although the map does display a few other neighborhoods with high vulnerability we believe that resources should be allocated more towards the southeast region in order to improve the standard of living and decrease the possibility of re-incarceration. ArcGis is a valuable information system that when used properly can display spatial data that we can use to help improve cities all over the country.