Punishment and Mass Incarceration

3 credits · Undergraduate

Mass Incarceration is one of the most serious legal and social issues in the United States today. Our excessive rate of imprisonment, exacerbated by equivalently high rates of probation, makes us an extreme outlier among democratic nations. Mass incarceration affects nearly all groups in our society, but disproportionately impacts racial minorities, wreaking havoc on the lives of individuals, their families and their communities. This course is an inquiry into the causes and effects of this strange and destructive policy. It’s divided into six units. The first explores the idea of punishment and the use of incarceration as a mode of punishment, relying on a wide variety of sources that include philosophy, religion, history, sociology and literature, and delineating the basic types of arguments that these sources deploy. The second unit provides a description of the nature and effect of mass incarceration as it exists at present, based on observers’ accounts, first person narratives by prisoners, and documentary films. The third unit discusses the prisoners’ rights litigation of the 1960s through 80s, and its impact on prison conditions and prison populations. The fourth considers various explanations that have been advanced to explain mass incarceration in the U.S., including racism, classism, political manipulation, mass media and voter preferences. In the final unit, alternatives to imprisonment will be assessed, including electronic monitoring, restorative justice and prison abolition. The course requirements are participation in the seminar discussions and one paper at the end that will give you a chance to state your own views about the subject matter. Prerequisite/Corequisite: ULAW 1000. [3]