Framing Legitimacy: A Qualitative Analysis Examining Local Print-Media Portrayals of an Immigrant Family Detention Center in Texas

Abstract

Research suggests that media portrayals can impact the opinions of adults (Dizard, 2000). However, media reports on aspects of our criminal justice system, such as corrections, are an understudied topic (Marsh, 1989), especially regarding the use of private prisons. The current study examines a sample of 12 local Texas newspapers that reported on the T. Don Hutto Facility in Taylor, Texas, between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2013. This facility was once a state prison for males and local jail inmates before being converted into an undocumented immigrant family detention facility and later into a detention center for undocumented immigrant females. In this article we use the theoretical concepts of moral and instrumental legitimacy and of diversionary framing to explain the importance of the type of inmate population held in a facility. We explain the presence of framing techniques and the involvement of civil rights organizations and discuss how these factors affect the way local print media depict private prison companies and their facilities, especially private family immigrant detention facilities. These facilities, which typically hold undocumented illegal immigrants and their children on non-criminal charges, have received considerable criticism from media for providing substandard quality confinement.