Criminology, law and society PhD candidate Hayley Carlisle received the 2026 CHSS Dean’s Challenge Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional students who have demonstrated academic excellence, a commitment to education as a powerful tool for change, and commitment to leadership and community engagement. It is among the most competitive and prestigious scholarships that the college offers and is open to all CHSS students.
After graduating from American University with her master’s degree in justice, law and criminology, George Mason University criminology, law and society doctoral student Hayley Carlisle spent a year and a half as the program coordinator for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DOC).
At the DOC, she supervised the LEAD Out! Workforce Development program, a re-entry program for DC residents returning home from prison or jail. She also worked inside the DC Jail with the LEAD Up! Program, supporting post-secondary students in educational program units (including college classes, GED preparation, trade programs, and pre-release/LEAD Out! planning).
That experience at the DOC served as the catalyst for her doctoral research she is now conducting at George Mason.
“It was deeply impactful and rewarding work,” said Carlisle, a native of Rhode Island. “Certainly challenging as well, but that really piqued my interest in learning more about how we can have administrations in correctional facilities work to improve the lives of people while they're incarcerated and then hopefully help improve their outcomes when they are released.”
In the fourth year of her doctoral program, Carlise is in the middle of her dissertation research, “The Jail House Rules: Drivers and Responses to Selective Rule Enforcement in a Local Jail.” Carlisle is examining perceptions of rule enforcement at jails through a dual population perspective, conducting surveys virtually with recently released inmates and correctional officers from a city jail in a Southern state.
Her mixed methods research, which includes qualitative interviews, surveys, and administrative data analysis, focuses on inconsistencies with rule enforcement, namely why some rules may be enforced and why others aren’t. While she is still collecting results, she said she was encouraged that both inmates and correction officers all want the rules to be enforced but in a fair and respectful manner. From the inmates’ point of view, they want enforcement to be consistent and to ensure their safety is being prioritized.
“I believe that the procedural justice that folks experience and perceive in jail is going to be impactful for not only their experience in prison, but also if they have continued involvement with the criminal legal system, whether that's encounters with police when they're back in the community or in further incarceration experiences in jail or prison.”
The research on rule enforcement in jails is also limited. Jails tend to have more of an “unstable” population, according to Carlisle, due to shorter stays and frequent turnover compared to inmates at prisons.
Criminology, law and society associate professor Evan Marie Lowder said Carlisle’s research will be significant to add correction facilities. Lowder serves as Carlise’s dissertation chair and supervised Carlisle, who served as a graduate research assistant for Lowder in the Early Justice Strategies Lab.
“A big portion of the justice-involved population will never step foot inside a prison facility, but many will experience local jail incarceration—even for short periods,” Lowder said. “Hayley’s research will shine a spotlight on this understudied topic in jails and can help speak to how these systems work well and identify ways in which they may not work as well to inform future improvements.”