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Required Reading and
Exercises
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| 9/4 |
Introduction & Greeting | Syllabus
(Adobe.pdf) | Pray Harrold 415, 2:00 - 3:15
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9/9
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: Intro + Ch 1
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Paper 1:
based on What
Every American Should Know About Criminal Justice
Write
a 1 page paper addressing (1) what you thought were the best points they
made (2) what were some point of information you did not know or had not
really thought about before, and (3) what questions or disagreements do
you have with what they say.
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9/11
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Johnson ch 1 |
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9/16
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Johnson ch 2
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| 9/18
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Johnson ch 3 |
Worksheet 1 due:
Go to ‘Prisoners
in 2002’. You will need to
open up the .pdf/ Adobe Acrobat file to complete this assignment because the other versions do not have all the
tables. Please be careful to distinguish between the number, a rate
and percents – make sure you provide the information requested by the
questions in the worksheet.
(click on 'worksheet' to open a copy of the questions you'll need to
answer) |
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9/23
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: ch 15 + 16
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For a listing of countries and their
incarceration rate, see the World
Prison Brief (this is the overhead I used in class + more background
info). The Interpol
website has crime stats by nation if you'd like to do some context
for incarceration figures. My page
on the death penalty has a section on European views, if you'd like
to follow up on Stern's thoughts; my StopViolence
site has information on Restorative Justice.
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| 9/25
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Johnson ch 4 |
Paper 2 Due – prison survival
guide: Go to the Black
People's Prison Survival Guide (or the
same thing fromtalkingdrumworld.com that has some background music and
'black' links but is more difficult to read because of the colors). Write a
2-3 page paper based on two of the three main parts (your choice – notice
that each part has 3-4 subsections, so be sure to review two main parts
rather than two subsections).
Your
paper should review the main points of the author’s discussion. Some
students will this material controversial, so feel free to include, as a
supplement to your review, a discussion of points you agreed or disagreed
with.
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| 9/30
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Johnson ch 5 start |
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| 10/2
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Johnson ch 5 finish |
Prison rape:
Stop Prison Rape
or Human
Rights Watch did a report on prison rape in the US entitled No Escape
(click on 'Read the report').
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| 10/7
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Johnson ch 6 start |
The video we saw was Shakedown in Santa Fe, about
the New Mexico prison riots. An
Albuquerque (NM) newspaper has good overview of the event. There's
a good overview of prison riot issues, causes and prevention.
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10/9
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Johnson ch 6 finish + review |
| 10/14
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test 1
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| 10/16
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Johnson ch 7 |
We discussed the
Stanford Prison Experiment in class - here's a link for the website that
has a slideshow and commentary by Zimbardo.
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10/21
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Johnson ch 8 |
In Chapters 7 & 8 Johnson makes extensive use of
Conover's book Newjack, partly because there are few officers who seem
to write - unlike the large amount of inmate literature. Conover
has his own website, which has an excerpt from the book; he's also
written a short but
interesting story of a female guard.
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| 10/23
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: 5 + 8 |
More on 'equality
with a vengeance'. Also, Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and
Guiding Principles for Women Offenders (142 pp, Adobe.pdf).
As we discussed in class, a search
for "women in prison" was as likely to turn up a dating
service or a B exploitation movie like Ilsa:
She Wolf of SS as anything serious (link goes to
prisonflicks.com).
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| 10/28
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: ch 4 |
Paper
3 - abuse in women's prisons: Write
a 2 page paper that summarizes the main issues and evidence presented in
either report. Remember to provide a full citation to the article you
read.
Go
to either (1) “Not
Part of My Sentence” from Amnesty International - important
parts to focus on are Sections 5 (sexual abuse), 6 (restraints) & 7
(health) or (2) “Nowhere
to Hide: Retaliation Against Women in Michigan State Prisons - the
summary is a good overview and the sections dealing with retaliation are
the important ones (feel free to include something on the recommendations
if you're wondering how the situation can change).
For more information, see ALL TOO FAMILIAR:
Sexual Abuse of Women in U.S. State Prisons (Human Rights Watch)
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| 10/30
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: ch 7, + 11 |
EWING v. CALIFORNIA
(2003) California's three strikes laws upheld - Ewing gets a minimum of
25 years for stealing 3 golf clubs with a total value of $1,200 because
of his previous burglaries. (Of
course, if you're Ken Lay, then you can be in charge of Enron when it
manipulates the California power crisis to increase profits, file false
financial documents, cause billions of dollars in losses - and you're
still not indicted and don't yet have your assets frozen....)
With No Sentencing Leeway, What's Left to Judge?
(Washington Post) Chief Justice William Rehnquist isn't exactly soft on crime. So when he takes the uncommon step of publicly opposing a bill aimed at lengthening prison sentences, you'd expect Congress to pay attention.
Instead, both the House and the Senate have voted overwhelmingly for legislation that threatens to strip federal judges of much of their discretion to give prison terms shorter than those in the federal sentencing guidelines. Attached as an amendment to the "Amber Alert" bill, a popular measure establishing a nationwide system to locate missing children, the changes passed with only 25 dissenting votes in the House and none in the Senate. Last week, President Bush signed the bill into law. So much for the chief justice, who was essentially ignored when he warned that the bill "would seriously impair the ability of courts to impose just and responsible sentences."
See
Lynch and Sabol, Prison use and Social Control discusses in more
detail research examining how mass incarceration undermines informal
social controls (family and community); it has a discussion of
incarceration effects, models of weakened informal social control
processes, and a review of empirical evidence. Part of Criminal
Justice 2000 (NIJ) that has some interesting work: Spohn has an
excellent review of 30 years of sentencing discrimination research, and
Zatz on the convergence of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class.
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| 11/4
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: ch 6 + 12 |
private prison resources
- info on cost savings, reports, and links to explore the topic.
Not With Our Money! is a network of student and community activists working to end the use of prisons for profit.
In September 1999, led by Prison Moratorium Project and Grassroots Leadership , Not With Our Money! took on multinational Sodexho Alliance, demanding that the catering company divest its 10% stake in Corrections Corporation of America. By the end of June 2001, CCA’s largest shareholder had ended all ties with the prison company as a result of protests at more than 60 campuses where subsidiary Sodexho Marriott Services held contracts
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| 11/6
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Mauer & Chesney-Lind: ch 3 + 10 |
Mark Mauer, who wote ch 3 on the disappearing voter,
works for the Sentencing
Project
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| 11/11
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Johnson ch 9 |
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| 11/13
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Johnson ch 10 start |
The Office of Justice Programs has a major
initiative dealing with prisoner
reentry. StopViolence has more on restorative
justice and includes a page on faith-based
crime prevention, which includes some prison ministries.
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| 11/18
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Johnson ch 10 finish |
| 11/20
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test 2
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| 11/25
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Prejean intro + ch 1 |
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| 11/27
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NO
CLASSES - THANKSGIVING |
| 12/2
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Prejean ch 2 + 3 |
worksheet 2 on Death Penalty
- click here to open the worksheet.
The information you need can be found in Capital
Punishment, 2002. NOTE: You will need to use the Adobe Acrobat version
[click on link that says "Acrobat file (335k)"], which has all
the tables and charts. |
| 12/4
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Prejean ch 4 + 5 |
Worldwide Executions Down in 2002 |
| 12/9
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Prejean ch 6 + 8 |
international views on US death
penalty - will be covered as part of final exam ~ see review sheet for
specifics. All the information you need is on this page, so just scroll
down (DO NOT FOLLOW ANY OF THE LINKS FROM THE TOP OF THE PAGE) |
| 12/11
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Prejean ch 9 + 11 |
 Review
Sheet for final. Make sure to review the international
perspectives information above (for 12/9 class). Bonus question is on Entertainment
Network v Lappin |
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12/17
(Wed) FINAL EXAM: 1:30 - 3:00
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