Prisoner Rights Activism&State

Catalog description

The course centers on: (a) how prisoners and other incarcerated populations in the U.S. have sought to change the conditions of their imprisonment particularly as of the 1950s to the present and (b) the response of state actors and third parties (including former prisoners and prisoners’ rights activists) to their calls for support. It also explores how race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation/preference, and class, among others, have influenced what social groups are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated. This course is ultimately designed to familiarize students with issues pertaining to the emergence of, and historical functions played by, penal and other institutions of mass incarceration created by local, state and federal agencies in the U.S. (e.g., private and public jails and prisons, immigration detentions centers, Indian reservations, concentration camps, military prisons). The course, of necessity, problematizes the concepts of crime and punishment and analyzes conservative, liberal, and radical theories of crime causation and punishment. Required films/documentaries and presentations by guest speakers will complement required readings. No Pre-requisite Offered: spring and fall semester.