LAW 406—Law, Politics and Mass Incarceration

This seminar explores how mass incarceration developed since the 1970s and how it affected the country’s legal, political, and social order. We will consider changes in broad areas of criminal justice administration, such as policing practices and sentencing law. We will also examine internal changes to penal institutions, the legal status of incarcerated persons, and prison litigation over various conditions of confinement, prison management, disciplinary systems, medical and mental health care, solitary confinement, and current correctional programming. Throughout, we will consider how social, economic, and political factors shaped the growth of the carceral state and current prospects of reform.