MILLION DOLLAR BLOCK: PROJECT ADAPTATION IN ALACHUA COUNTY
Introduction: Basic Study
The intent of this project is to use ArcGIS, a platform for designing and managing solutions through the application of geographic knowledge, to analyze real-world data and issues related to that data. Using data acquired from various sources, we will conduct an overlay study in order to analyze any potential patterns. Through the identification of these patters, our group will be able to better understand the potential causes of these patterns and how they relate to real-world issues.
The focus of our research will revolve around incarceration data for Alachua County, Florida. Our inspiration and precedence for conducting this study was Architecture and Justice by the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL), Graduate School of Architecture and Preservation, Columbia University. In the fall of 2006, the SIDL decided to look at incarcerations in a very unique way, paying attention to patterns of incarcerated people, specifically repeat offenders, based on their home address at the time of the events. The purpose of this analysis was to discover how much money was being spent, per census block, to incarcerate each individual. The patterns that emerged were very clear and led to much bigger questions about the underlying factors as well as what could be done with the newly discovered data. The intriguing results of the SIDL study inspired our research group to apply the same concept to our area here in north central Florida, not sure whether we would recognize any similar patterns.
We started the process by simply gathering any data we thought might be relevant to our study, including incarceration data that included the home addresses of each incarcerated individual from January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2012. We joined this layer of data with data from the Census Bureau, which allowed us to visualize the total number of incarcerations events per census block group.
The focus of our research will revolve around incarceration data for Alachua County, Florida. Our inspiration and precedence for conducting this study was Architecture and Justice by the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL), Graduate School of Architecture and Preservation, Columbia University. In the fall of 2006, the SIDL decided to look at incarcerations in a very unique way, paying attention to patterns of incarcerated people, specifically repeat offenders, based on their home address at the time of the events. The purpose of this analysis was to discover how much money was being spent, per census block, to incarcerate each individual. The patterns that emerged were very clear and led to much bigger questions about the underlying factors as well as what could be done with the newly discovered data. The intriguing results of the SIDL study inspired our research group to apply the same concept to our area here in north central Florida, not sure whether we would recognize any similar patterns.
We started the process by simply gathering any data we thought might be relevant to our study, including incarceration data that included the home addresses of each incarcerated individual from January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2012. We joined this layer of data with data from the Census Bureau, which allowed us to visualize the total number of incarcerations events per census block group.
Next, we had to determine the total cost of each incarceration event in order to determine the total cost of incarceration per census block group. This turned out to be much more challenging than we had anticipate, but we were able to create the data needed and the results were astonishing.
Using the booking date and release date provided, we were able to add a feature to the attribute table that calculated the total number of days for each of the 65,000+ incarceration events. After this, we had to determine the cost of incarceration per day in Alachua County. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, it costs around $70 per day to feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide medical services for each individual. With the added overhead personnel and maintenance costs, we determined that it costs approximately $129 per day to incarcerate an individual in Alachua County, which certainly is not cheap. With the cost per day established, our group was able to determine the incredible cost of incarceration per census block group during the established five-year period.
Using the booking date and release date provided, we were able to add a feature to the attribute table that calculated the total number of days for each of the 65,000+ incarceration events. After this, we had to determine the cost of incarceration per day in Alachua County. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, it costs around $70 per day to feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide medical services for each individual. With the added overhead personnel and maintenance costs, we determined that it costs approximately $129 per day to incarcerate an individual in Alachua County, which certainly is not cheap. With the cost per day established, our group was able to determine the incredible cost of incarceration per census block group during the established five-year period.
At this point of the project we had to ask ourselves what sort of story we wanted to tell and how we could use this data in a positive way. We had to think differently about what was going on in the big picture and what sort of ideas we could produce to solve some of these current issues.
Further Factors we considered
Since there is historic correlation between education levels and crime rates we decided to see if within census blocks groups there were any significant patterns with our information. For two of the three highest incarceration rate block groups, the percentages of people with college education were in the second to lowest category, with 38.6% and 42.1% respectfully. For the other census block group in the top three, the percentage with college education was 69.9%. While these numbers were not the very lowest in Alachua County, it still suggests actions that could be taken to start to mitigate the problem of crime. Starting as early as middle school, programs could be setup to get students to start planning for college. They could be taught that they could achieve higher education and, perhaps, by residents from these areas achieving more scholastically, they would be less likely to be involved in crime. Other programs could be mitigated to these areas such as mentorships and scholarships, all in an effort to get more of the populace to attend college.
We have an idea as to what mitigates or allows crime. Based on our maps, the locations of addresses for convicts tended to fall in block groups with lower income.
We calculated total costs of incarceration and wanted to find a way to better spend taxpayer money and prevent crimes, so I made a map indicating locations of addresses of incarcerated people juxtaposed to various elements to determine a pattern. We assumed that the presence of public parks, activity centers, and the like would prevent crime by providing people with things to do. Unfortunately, as demonstrated in this map, and others using different layers, our hypothesis was not correct. The metadata for the Cultural Center layer defines cultural centers as aquariums and zoos, gardens, theaters, historical places, libraries, museums and art galleries, performing arts centers, planetariums, and art studios. This map shows a relationship between addresses of incarcerated persons and locations of cultural centers. In most cases, convicts reside within close proximity.
Following the previous idea, we decided to broaden this outlook, and consider not only cultural centers, but libraries, youth organizations, and parks as well. The occurrence of these points varied significantly across our highest incarceration rate census block groups. Across the board, however, it did seem these places were in the areas in general. This led us to consider the possibility that perhaps these institutions and places were not being significantly used, and that perhaps further study into the kinds of programs and outreach that they have might be useful. There was a very significant occurrence of parks in our census block groups of interest, and like the cultural centers occurrence, this might just be another correlate of high population density.
COnclusions from study
From this project, we suggest four things that could start to reverse the observed concentration of crime-committing individuals: adequate post-incarceration housing, outreach programs from present cultural institutions, education programs and incentives, and employment programs and incentives. From our analysis we found that Alachua County is spending many millions of dollars to keep its residents locked up in jail. We’d like to see a reallocation of those funds in the future to prevent crime and reverse a pattern that many might see as inevitable.