Dissertation Project:
My mixed-methods dissertation draws from both quantitative administrative data and qualitative interview data to systematically study the roles of space and time in shaping experiences with community-based supervision (probation and parole) and its administration in the United States. In the quantitative portion of this project, I explore whether and how employment outcomes following one’s probation/parole sentence vary across rural and urban contexts in one Midwestern U.S. state. In the qualitative portion of this work, I draw from 60 semi-structured interviews I conducted with probation/parole agents working in the same Midwestern state to examine how these agents perceive and navigate their work differently across rural and urban counties and how the structural features of such communities impact (and constrain) their work on the ground. I additionally consider how agents understand and experience the contemporary “pendulum shift” in criminal justice policy more broadly.
Other Research:
In other work, I have explored the contemporary nature of community supervision via a focus on the probation conditions to which individuals must adhere as part of their sentences while under supervision. Drawing from individual-level administrative records from one Mid-Atlantic state in the U.S., I examine (1) the initial differential assignment of heterogenous probation conditions across groups and (2) the extent to which these conditions are then associated with unsatisfactory case outcomes (like revocation).
I am also engaged in collaborative work on physical and mental health burdens and access to healthcare among those in solitary confinement. In a recent paper (Jahn et al. 2022), we provide a mixed-methods analysis of data from a sample of 99 men in Pennsylvania to (1) detail patterns of multimorbidity among men in solitary confinement and (2) show how these men experience and manage health concerns in solitary confinement.