01:202:203 | Prisons and Prisoners |
Description: | Origins and methods of revenge, coercive custody, confinement, punishment, rehabilitation, restitution, deterrence, and prisoner education programs examined. Includes emphasis on current controversies related to jail and prison overcrowding, treatment of violent juveniles and chemically dependent offenders, and AIDS risk assessment of juvenile and adult offenders. |
Prerequisites: | 01:202:201 |
Course Synopsis: |
Professor WELCH, Section 01: The course intends to survey the expanding boundaries of corrections, punishment, and social control. By emphasizing a critical approach to the criminal justice apparatus, prevailing myths and ideologies shall be confronted, allowing students to understand how key social forces (i.e., economics, politics, morality, and technology) shape the use of prisons in contemporary society. Likewise, considerable attention is directed at the internal workings of corrections, including various institutional problems and issues (e.g., violence, the death penalty, the war on drugs, racism, and classism). The general goal of the course is to foster an intelligent and sophisticated view of corrections and its many contradictions. A few words about Convict Criminology: Convict Criminology proposes a methodology, a theory, and a perspective about the study of correctional environments and its occupants. Its study could easily occupy a full semester of work. This semester will provide you with an introduction to that theory and that perspective for your consideration. Dr. Richards ends every email with the message, “we have been tough on crime, now we need to be smart on crime.” This semester proposes to offer an exploration or prisons and prisoners with the tenets of convict criminology as its underpinnings. |
Current Syllabus: | Spring 2018 WELCH Spring 2018 SOTO |
Previous Syllabi: |
Fall 2017 SHERIDAN |