The Politics of Mass Incarceration, 1945 – present
Jessica Neptune
jneptune@uchicago.edu
HMRT 23100 and HIST 27108
Tuesday/Thursday 12-1:20 pm in Cobb 303
Office Hours 1:30-2:30 Tues/Thurs
University of Chicago
Spring 2009
In 1970 there were slightly less than 200,000 people incarcerated in the United States. By
2000 there were more than two million. With this 10-fold increase over thirty years,
unprecedented in world history, the United States now leads the world in the rate it
imprisons its citizens. This dramatic surge in American reliance on incarceration was not
inevitable or even predictable. In the 1970’s the rehabilitation efforts and goals of the
early post war period came under attack from both sides of the political spectrum. Most
experts deemed the prison a failed institution and considered the criminal justice system
to be in crisis. Many expected prisons to go the way of mental hospitals and
deinstitutionalize. Instead the United States undertook a reinvention of the prison and
criminal justice systems and reinvested in the prison as the main institutional response to
criminal behavior. Why and how that happened is the subject of this course.
This course explores the politics of the prison in American society in the second half of
the 20th century. Key concerns include: 1. The political, economic, and social conditions
that produce the prison industrial complex, 2. Racial and gendered discourses that enable
the incarceration of over two million people, 3. The impact of the Civil Rights Movement
on American penal practices and politics and the impact of penal practices on civil rights
achievements, 5. The prisoners’ rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and
the rise and fall of the “deinstitutionalization” programs during that time, 6. The
philosophies and world views behind rehabilitation programs and their critics, 7. The rise
of a politics of law, order, and victim’s rights. The course will offer a brief background in
penal history from the colonial period forward, but will concentrate its focus on the post
WWII period.
Requirements:
Attendance of all classes and engaged participation: In a ten week, discussion based
course attendance is vital. Please speak to me first for excused absences. Students are
expected to engage in class conversation regularly. (20%).
Response papers (students must do six of the ten papers): Due emailed to me 9am on the
morning of each starred (*) class. These will be papers in which the student reflects on
the reading and poses questions. The goal is both to monitor reading and aid class
discussion but also to encourage and foster critical thinking skills and a richer
engagement with the text. The paper should be written in Times New Roman font, size
12, single-spaced 300-500 words. EVERY PAPER SHOULD BE SAVED UNDER
YOUR LAST NAME AND THE WEEK # (25%).
Current Event Report: Each student will choose one week (Thursdays beginning in week
two) for which s/he is responsible for finding a recent newspaper or magazine article on a
topic related to the themes of the class. The student will be responsible for posting a link
to the article on chalk, and writing up a brief (1-2 pages) summary and discussion of the
issues in the article. The student will be expected to present the article in class and offer
to the class a question for discussion. (15%)
Final paper: Students will write an 8-10 page essay on a series of questions handed out
in class. Due Friday of 10th week at 5 PM. Non seniors have the option of writing an 8-10
page research paper due Friday of 11th week. Non-seniors must chose which option they
prefer by 7th week. All papers should be written in Times New Roman font, size 12,
double-spaced. There will be no extensions on final papers. (40%)
Required Books: (available for purchase at the Co-op)
Mark Colvin, Penitentiaries, Reformatories and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the
History of Punishment in Nineteenth Century America
Marie Gottschalk, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration
Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality
George Jackson, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson
Michael Flamm, Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest and the Crisis of Liberalism
on the 1960’s.
Joseph Hallinan, Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation
Jennifer Gonnerman, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Barlett
Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?
Recommended Reading:
David Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum
Silja J.A. Talvi Women Behind Bars: The Crisis in the U.S. Prison System
Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind Invisible Punishment: The Collateral
Consequences of Mass Imprisonment
Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam DeLone The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity
and Crime in America
Christian Parenti Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis
Tara Herivel and Paul Wright Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor
David Oshinsky “Worse than Slavery”: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow
Justice
Joy James States of Confinement: Policing, Detention and Prisons
Jeffrey Reiman The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and
Criminal Justice
Doris Marie Provine Unequal Under the Law: Race in the War on Drugs
Mary Bosworth and Jeanne Flavin (ed) Race, Gender and Punishment: From
Colonialism to the War on Terror (Critical Issues in Crime and Society)
For a longer reading list, please come see me in office hours.
(C) = Chalk course documents (R)= Electronic reserve
Schedule
UNIT I: Framing: Prison History and The Crisis of Legitimacy
Week 1
Tuesday: Before class please read Eric Schlosser, “The Prison-Industrial
Complex.” Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons and look
over the Pew Report 1 in 100:
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=35904. In class: Class
overview, slideshow, discuss the Pew Report and Atlantic Monthly article.
**Thursday: Mark Colvin Penitentiaries, Reformatories and Chain Gangs: Social
Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth Century America Ch 3, 4, 6, 7.
Optional: Joseph Hallinan Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation Ch 5.
Week 2
**Tuesday: Larry Sullivan The Prison Reform Movement Ch 3 “Riot and
Rebellion in the 1950’s,” Ch 4 “The Decline of Treatment 1950-1960.” Ch 5
“Corrections in Transition, 1960-1970” (R)
Optional: Joseph Hallinan Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation Ch 6.
UNIT II: Resistance, Riots, and Rights
**Thursday: Anthony Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet Ch 1(R), Gideon v. Wainwright
(C), Miranda v. Arizona (C)
Week 3
**Tuesday: Joseph Hallinan Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation Ch 2-3.
Marie Gottschalk, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration Ch 7
“From Rights to Revolution.”
Thursday: Bert Seem and Peter Kimball States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots 19711986. Ch 1 (Introduction), Ch 2 (The Historical Context: 1950-1975), Ch 3 (D-Yard
Nation –Attica 1971)
Week 4
**Tuesday: George Jackson, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George
Jackson
In class film: Ghosts of Attica
Thursday: Eric Cummins, The Rise and Fall of California's Radical Prison
Movement Preface, Ch 6 “Crime Fetishism in the Left,” Ch 7 “George Jackson” (R).
UNIT III: The “Law and Order” Era I
Week 5
**Tuesday: Michael Flamm Law and Order Introduction-Ch 5.
Thursday: Flamm Ch 6- Epilogue.
Week 6
**Tuesday: Marie Gottschalk, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass
Incarceration Ch 4, 8, 9.
Thursday: Frank Carrington The Victims (Selected sections will be on Chalk)
In class we will review literature from the Victim’s Rights Movement
The “Law and Order” Era II The War on Drugs
Week 7
**Tuesday: Thomas C. Rowe Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs
Preface, Introduction, Ch 1-2. (R), Craig Reinarman and Harry Levine Crack in America
Ch 1-2 (R).
Optional: Joseph Hallinan Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation Ch 4.
Thursday: Jennifer Gonnerman Life on the Outside Part One (pg 15-70)
Optional: (Highly recommended) Read Part Two
UNIT IV: The Faces of Mass Incarceration: Race and Gender Behind Bars
Week 8
**Tuesday: Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality in America (Section 1)(R)
Thursday: Silja Talvi Women Behind Bars Preface, Ch1. (R), HARD HIT: The
Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004 Foreword, Part One
http://www.wpaonline.org/institute/hardhit/index.htm
UNIT V: The Political Economy of the Prison Industrial Complex
Week 9
**Tuesday: Finish: Joseph Hallinan Going up River: Travels in a Prison Nation.
(Ch 1, 7-10, 12-15, 17)
In class film: “Yes In My Backyard” by Tracy Huling.
UNIT VI: The Rise of Paramilitary Policing.
**Thursday: Cato Institute, Cato Briefing Papers Report by Diane Cecilia Weber
Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments
(C), Daryl Meeks “Police Militarization in Urban Areas: The Obscure War Against the
Underclass.” (C)
WRAP UP
Week 10
Tuesday: In-class (informal) debate/discussion: Prison Abolition? Using Angela
Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? and Richard A. Wright, In Defense of Prisons
(selections TBA) (R) Students will be expected to have come up with their own opinions
about the state of the criminal justice system and what kinds of changes may be called
for.
Final paper topic will be handed out in class.
*** Please note that this syllabus is a living document, meaning it is subject to change
due to the needs and dynamics of the class. Students will be given ample notice of any
changes.