Collecting Social Network Data in Prison and during Reentry
This chapter provides a guide for collecting primary social network data from prisoners and reentrants. The ideal reader is a researcher who wishes to incorporate networks into a future study related to incarceration or community reentry. The chapter begins with a brief summary of two recent projects that draw on network data to study prison informal social structure and reentry. It then provides a simple introduction to social network analysis and an overview of the key challenges for conducting network research in prison. The chapter ends with a discussion of some of the potential applications of network science for understanding the prison setting and reentry experience. In so doing, the chapter provides an insider’s view of the authors’ own research experiences and a road map of likely challenges in conducting this type of research in correctional institutions.