JUS 4344 - Prison and Punishment in U.S. Society

Credits: 3 hrs

This course surveys the central role jails, prisons, and detention centers play in contemporary U.S. society. Students will be challenged to analyze the prison as a modality of power that shapes, and is shaped by, hierarchies of difference organized around race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship. We wil study histories of incarceration on communties, families, the political economy, and our democratic institutions. Students will also explore domestic and global alternatives to incarceration through an analysis of popular social movements struggling for penal abolition, restorative and transformative justice, and decarceration.
Pre-requisite(s): POS 2311 and JUS 2301 - Introduction to Justice Studies
Student Learning Outcome: Critical Reading