Project Grant 2341605

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $192,139 Project Grant under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (CFDA 47.075) program to The Curators of the University of Missouri, doing business as the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC). The grant, awarded on June 15, 2024, funds a collaborative research project to evaluate the implementation of the "Nordic Model" of incarceration in the United States. The research aims to shed light on how the principles of dignity, normalization, and resocialization associated with the Nordic approach have been translated into U.S. correctional policies and practices, and how these efforts are experienced by prison staff and incarcerated individuals. The project will analyze multiple implementation sites to understand the factors that facilitate or constrain the achievement of the Nordic Model's short-term and long-term goals in new contexts. This variegated comparative analysis is expected to contribute to the scientific understanding of how change is accomplished in carceral institutions and the potential for sustainability of such reform initiatives.