Race, Gender, and Punishment

Examination of what crisis scholars have called prison industrial complex. U.S. has largest prison population in world. How and why is this? Who is imprisoned? What historical conditions and ideologies gave rise to this massive explosion in prisoner population? Does prison function as regime? How have politicians used imprisonment as response to economic transformations and social disorders? How is current crisis analogous to or distinct from regimes of racialized punishment in prior historical moments? How do prisons change environments? How have people mobilized to reduce U.S. prison population? Why do some activists argue for reform and others for abolition? Examination of key topics, including policing and racial profiling, immigrant detention, privatization, spatial transformations, gender violence, prison spending, and political imprisonment.

P/NP or letter grading.