Rethinking Crime and Justice: Explorations from the Inside Out

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course includes attention to some of the issues behind the current call for criminal justice reform, including mass incarceration, racial disproportionality, and reentry challenges. Yet the focus of the course is on deeper concerns, including why criminal justice systems rely on punishment, what else they could be accomplishing, and what responsibility we have as citizens for the justice systems operating in our names. As part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, the course involves inside students (men who are incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, IN) and outside students (people enrolled at Notre Dame, St. Marys, or Holy Cross) learning with and from each other and breaking new ground together. Most weeks of the semester, campus students travel to Westville for class with the incarcerated students; all are responsible for the same reading and writing assignments, and participate together in class activities and discussions. Together the two groups examine myths and realities related to crime and to punishment, explore the effects of current criminal justice policies, and develop ideas for responding more effectively to crime in our communities. Apply online via the Institute for Social Concerns website: https://socialconcerns.nd.edu.