17.271
Mass Incarceration in the United States
Covers the current state of incarceration in the United States and proposals for reform. Class materials include a mix of first-hand/media accounts of incarceration and social science literature on the causes and effects of high incarceration rates. Topics include race and the criminal legal system, collateral consequences of incarceration, public opinion about incarceration, and the behavior of recently elected "reform" prosecutors.
Fall 2020
Topics
- Introduction
- More detail/Race and the criminal legal system
- Downstream effects: crime and recidivism
- Downstream effects: collateral consequences
- Laws
- Public opinion, punitiveness, elections
- Interest groups
- Police and prosecutors
- Changing public opinion, laws, sentencing
- Changing actors (especially prosecutors)
- Changing technology
- Reform vs. revolution
- Final presentations
Readings
- ———. “Process.” Chapter 3 in Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal. Basic Books, 2018. ISBN: 9780465093793.
- ———. “Assessing the Effects of Criminal Justice.” Chapter 4 in Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control . University of Chicago Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780226137834.
- ———.“What Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Say?: Stop and Search, 1995.” Chapter 6 in Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. ISBN: 9780374537449. (Recommended but optional)
- ———.“Epilogue: The Reach of Our Mercy, 2014–16.” In Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. ISBN: 9780374537449. (Recommended but optional)
- New York Times op-eds on carceral policy:
- Pfaff, John F. “Private Prisons, Public Spending.” Chapter 3 in Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform . Basic Books, 2017. ISBN: 9780465096916.
- Pfaff, John F. “A Brief History of Time (Served).” Chapter 2 in Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform . Basic Books, 2017. ISBN: 9780465096916.
- ———. “The Man Behind the Curtain.” Chapter 5 in Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform . Basic Books, 2017. ISBN: 9780465096916.
- ———. “Quo Vadis?” Chapter 8 in Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform . Basic Books, 2017. ISBN: 9780465096916.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Fall) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2020
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.