Race US Criminal Legal Policy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course will examine the roots of the US mass incarceration crisis through a racial analysis of 150 years of criminal “justice” policy. The first half of the course will focus on the US criminal legal system issues such as policing, crime control and public safety policies, as well as their disparate impact on African American and Latinx communities. The second half of the course will be spent evaluating trending 21st century reforms for their ability to balance public safety, proportionality in punishment, as well as racial justice. In this course, students will be responsible for digesting and interrogating social science research, state and federal legislative initiatives and other public policies, and political and advocacy campaigns. Students will be introduced to and adopt the role of various stakeholders in setting out policies of the distant and recent past for hands on experience vetting and implementing policies in the furtherance of their final project, a blue-ribbon commission on a policy intervention of their choosing. Subject matter discussions in this course, as well as readings and multimedia material, may be triggering. All students must show respect and practice grace and diplomacy.