Carileigh Jones, MA (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include social control, punishment, adverse childhood experiences, inequality, and social psychology.
Her dissertation, titled “Safety, Security, and Rehabilitation? An Analysis of Publication Censorship Practices and Previously Imprisoned Individuals’ Experiences in Illinois,” explores publication censorship policies and practices within Illinois prisons, and the ways in which they impact incarcerated individuals’ access to knowledge. Drawing upon qualitative data derived from over 460 pages of court case documents (deposition transcripts and expert witness testimony statements), Illinois Department of Corrections policy documents, and 48 in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals – Carileigh theorizes censorship as a practice of carcerality, which not only defines and regulates the limits of what can be known and expressed, but may also be experienced by incarcerated individuals as “control and surveillance of both the mind and body” (Friedman, 2021).
Carileigh’s other projects focus on the relationship between risk factors and gun-related delinquency, the causes and effects of violence in urban areas, and adverse childhood experiences and pathways to prison. Writing by Carileigh has been featured in the Journal of Higher Education in Prison and Youth Voice Journal.
As a community engaged scholar, Carileigh is a member of the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison. Additionally, she has worked in the not-for-profit sector responding to gun violence incidents and providing survivors and their family with psychological and social support. As a part of this role, she organized and maintained data on gun violence at the city level, and worked with hospital, community organization, and social services staff to provide wraparound services to victims of gun violence. She currently serves as an evaluation team member for the City of Champaign’s Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint.
Research Interests: Social control, punishment, adverse childhood experiences, inequality, and social psychology.
Dissertation Title: “Safety, Security, and Rehabilitation? An Analysis of Publication Censorship Practices and Previously Imprisoned Individuals’ Experiences in Illinois”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Ruby Mendenhall (Sociology)
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Reuben A. Buford May (Sociology, Director of Research); Dr. Anna-Maria Marshall (Sociology); Dr. Isak Ladegaard; Dr. Bobby Smith (African American Studies)
