Introduction to Sociology Professor Munshi Fall 2015 Davis

Introduction to Sociology Professor Munshi Fall 2015

Davis- Chapter 2 • Are prisons racist institutions? • History of racist and punitive institutions – Slavery – Lynching – Segregation

Davis- Chapter 2 • Penitentiary as a system that rehabilitated and punished at the same time • Incarceration, from prelude to punishment itself • Replaced capital and corporal punishment • Repent via reflection and labor in silence/solitude • Prison was a reform to be more humane

Davis- Chapter 2 • Similar to Slave Codes, and after abolition of slavery, Slave codes were revised to regulate behavior of free black people (actions were criminalized only when person was black) • 13 th Amendment, abolished slavery but exception: slavery and involuntary servitude allowable as punishment for crime if person is duly convicted (and crimes defined by state law where only black people could be convicted)

Davis- Chapter 2 • After slavery, criminal legal system restricts freedom of black people • Crime imputed to color (Douglass) • Convict leasing system, leased in groups & conditions were worse than slavery • Alabama prisons, e. g. – 99 % of prisoners in Alabama’s penitentiary=white – After emancipation/Black Codes, majority =black

Davis- Chapter 3 • Before punitive incarceration, punishment (corporal punishment, like whippings, brandings, amputations, banishment) was a public spectacle • [though punishment for women mostly took place within the domestic arena] • Imprisonment as a mode of punishment Europe (18 th c) and U. S. (19 th c)

Davis- Chapter 3 • imprisonment as punishment comes up at a very specific time– as part of the rise of capitalism and new ideas about how society works • Ideology of “individual rights” is required in order for removing them to be seen as punishment, change in legal status, have rights taken away [e. g. vs. banishment]

Davis- Chapter 3 • If this system came about during a specific set of historical circumstances, we should question whether it makes sense in the present time, in this set of circumstances

Davis-Chapter 3 • In the U. S. different systems but similar philosophy – Pennsylvania model (1821): total silence, isolation, solitude – Auburn model: solitary cells but labor in common

Davis: in-class Quiz Why was solitary confinement important to prison reformers? What was the goal? How does this compare to today’s version of solitary confinement in the prison?

In-class Exercise

Homework for Monday, December 7 • Re-read Davis Chapter 4 • Read Chapter 5 • Journal #12 is due