HST 354 - American In/Justice: The Prison as a Social History of the US

Min Units: 3
Max Units: 3
America, home of the free? The US warehouses more people in prison, probation, and parole than any other nation in the world. This course examines the growth of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)–the lobbyists, contractors, prison guard unions, political culture, and public sentiment–that gives rise to the PIC starting at the end of Reconstruction to the present. Topics to include: shifting approaches to justice and rehabilitation; the growth of privatized prisons and other efforts to monetize prison and prisoners; the school to prison pipeline; and race, gender, and class biases in charging and sentencing; the prison abolition movement; the waning fortunes of the death penalty; and the influence of “prison” culture and aesthetics–music, poetry, writing–and among other topics. (U/G) Occasionally