17.271 | Fall 2020 | Undergraduate

Mass Incarceration in the United States

Calendar

WEEK # TOPICS DUE DATES

Part I: Where are we? (Overview of US incarceration)

1

Introduction

 

2

More detail/Race and the criminal legal system

 

3

Downstream effects: crime and recidivism

Assignment 1 distributed 

4

Downstream effects: collateral consequences

 

Part II: How did we get here?

5

Laws

Assignment 1 due

6

Public opinion, punitiveness, elections

Assignment 2 distributed

7

Interest groups

 

8

Police and prosecutors

Assignment 2 due

Part III: What could change?

9

Changing public opinion, laws, sentencing

Assignment 3 distributed

10

Changing actors (especially prosecutors)

 

11

Changing the prison system (or diverting)

Guest speaker: Lee Perlman, director of the ESG Prison Initiative at MIT

Assignment 3 due

12

Changing technology

 

13

Reform vs. revolution

 

14

Final presentations

Final presentation due

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Fall 2020
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