Faculty First Year Seminars 191JRN5 - Mass Incarceration in America

America imprisons a huge number of people ? roughly 2.3 million. The jails that hold these individuals are in our communities (including Northampton and Greenfield), but the incarcerated people and their family are generally invisible, to the point that many community members have no idea they live, shop and go to work right next to compounds that imprison hundreds ? sometimes thousands ? of their former neighbors, co-workers and fellow students. How do people get to prison? Who goes to prison? What is life in jail like? What happens when people get out of prison? How can the mass incarceration system be reformed? This course will combine readings (and guest-speaker sessions) from people who are, or have been, incarcerated, with expert proposals for the reform of the many facets of the American criminal justice system. The students will have a chance to both familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of the mass incarceration phenomenon and to engage critically with its history and its legal, sociological, cultural and philosophical underpinnings. At some point during the semester, we will do a field trip to Northampton where we will tour the Hampshire County Jail.

Freshmen Only