Understanding Rikers Island and Other Ci

Municipal jails are one of the most impactful institutions of criminal justice in the United States; and yet many Americans do not even know the difference between a prison and a jail. This course will investigate the conditions of mass incarceration in America by centering the municipal jail. We will begin with the question “what is a jail,” and move from there to interrogate the cultural, economic, political and legal forces that shape the conditions of possibility for the 21st century jail. Taking as objects of study both the jail itself and the practice of incarcerating people in local jails, this course will combine scholarly work on U.S. criminal justice with a variety of non-academic texts including legal decisions, contemporary journalism, and documentary film. Over the course of the semester students will learn to “locate” the city jail in a number of different ways: within the complex political and economic structures of the American municipality, within the criminal justice system writ large, and within the country’s long history of anti-black racism and struggles for freedom. In addition to readings and discussions, students will get to know practices of municipal incarceration first-hand through observations in New York City’s criminal courthouses and other ethnographic excursions in the city. Because we are in New York City, we will pay particular attention throughout the semester to Rikers Island and the city’s proposed Borough-Based Jails Plan.