CTSJ 195 Topics in Critical Theory and Social Justice

Radical Critiques of Incarceration

Students in this course will explore a range of theories that attempt to explain the unprecedented expansion of the correctional system in late modern America. The United States became the world's leading incarcerator in the War on Crime era, and yet, in this period, rates of serious crime rates were dropping. Course readings will focus on radical critiques of this phenomenon that chart the growth of the prison and the rise of the prison industrial complex as a sociopolitical construction rather than an authentic response to crime.