Abstract

Who gets to witness an eclipse? For incarcerated individuals, it can be hard to participate in this very communal celebration of science. Through a partnership between NASA, The Marshall Project, JSTOR, The Osborne Association, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, across the country incarcerated youth and adults, as well as their families were able to not just witness the event but participate in real citizen science.

Witnessing a Solar Eclipse

Nearly two million people are incarcerated in the US, a larger proportion of the population than any other country in the world. Studies show that educational opportunities for incarcerated learners reduce recidivism rates by an estimated 42% (Davis et al., 2014). Reaching this community with the inspirational experience of an eclipse provided a unique opportunity to bring science and a new perspective to incarcerated people, who were eager to experience this celestial phenomenon. In fact, as New York prisons attempted to keep everyone inside, six men in at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility sued to be able to witness this phenomenon.

This grassroots, organically developed project reached out to the incarcerated population in three ways, 1) by sending glasses and educational materials directly to institutions, 2) by encouraging individual participation in eclipse citizen science by incarcerated people and their families, and 3) by sharing information widely through JSTOR Daily. 

Daniella Scalice of NASA Astrobiology Program has been working with incarcerated learners for the last decade. She and Ha-Hoa Hamano, on detail to NASA’s Heliophysics Division, worked with partners to distribute thousands of glasses to prisons, along with NASA posters, activities, and art projects that could be completed in institutional settings. In some cases, it was easiest to go through the prison higher education programs to distribute the glasses, while in others, the partners worked to get the glasses through the package room safely.  According to one participant, “It was a big event for everyone to be able to go outside. I was even able to share my single pair of glasses with over 100 others.”

One example of an eclipse event for incarcerated youth comes from Dr. Donna Jagielski. Forty students and nine support staff witnessed the eclipse at the Maricopa County Juvenile Corrections in Arizona. Each youth group spent a total of 30 minutes viewing the eclipse. Students created drawings, took temperature measurements using field notes, and asked, “How do you mathematically calculate the temperature changes?” The youth used the eclipse agenda timeframe to guide viewing the different stages (Figure 1). Comments from the learners included, “I’ve only ever seen it through the pinhole and the box—this is way better!”

The Marshall Project got the word out about the eclipse via News Inside, a news magazine that is distributed to incarcerated people in 1,400 prisons and jails in forty-eight states and Washington, D.C., as well as Canada, Mexico, and Panama. More than 150 people sent a letter of interest to participate in a citizen science project. Many told of seeing eclipses before, their interest in astronomy, or their desire to share it with the young people in their lives. 

Astronomical Society of the Pacific staff modified the Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Field Notes to allow incarcerated individuals to participate without access to the internet. More than seventy-five incarcerated learners took observations of the flora, fauna, and human behavior during the eclipse and sent observations back to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. These were included as data in the Eclipse Soundscapes science project and participants were mailed a certificate of participation (Figure 2). In addition, a letter with a copy of their certificates was mailed to their parole officers for inclusion in their files. “Somber moment. Calm before the storm feeling during the eclipse”

The Osborne Association provided eclipse glasses to their programs for children with incarcerated parents in Buffalo and in New York City, and they also passed out eclipse glasses to children leaving visits with their moms on Rikers Island, a New York City jail. Another organization located in Virginia, Assisting Families of Inmates also shared eclipse glasses with families of the incarcerated (Figure 3). In addition, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific mailed 40+ pairs of glasses in response to letters from the families of the incarcerated who were participating. These glasses were mailed with an invitation to participate in the same citizen science project as their incarcerated family member and ways to request glasses for their schools and communities. With each interaction, the team let the families know that their loved one in prison was participating in the same project, in hopes that the event could create a sense of connection across locations. “I’m excited to have an activity my kids and I can do together,” and “I would be proud if you would give the honor to be part of this enriching opportunity to my granddaughter and grandson.”

In a broad push to share the eclipse with a large population of incarcerated learners, the JSTOR team pulled together a collection of resources that covered eclipses in science, history, and story, as well as pieces related to natural phenomena and incarceration. Stacey Burnett released this through JSTOR Daily to six million people, including almost a million incarcerated people. “The entire unit was silent. We were amazed by the sudden darkness. We connected and laughed at the end.”

These efforts were difficult to document quantitatively (Figure 4), but letters from incarcerated participants were unanimously positive, even when the observing conditions were limited, “Couldn't see much through the window but I feel better for having participated.”

While efforts to bring a singular experience to incarcerated people can feel like a drop in the ocean of needs for criminal justice reform, this small, grassroots project started from a few key conversations and led to the wonder of a solar eclipse reaching thousands who might otherwise have missed the experience. The partners who worked on this hope this is only the beginning of larger initiatives to reach this severely underserved population with inspirational science resources that encourage us all to reach for the stars.