Before describing this additional extra credit opportunity, let me remind you to check out the previous two blog posts on "Gang Leader" and the initial extra credit opportunity connected with a video we will see in class this Thursday (11/3).
ANOTHER EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY:
Tomorrow evening (Tues. 11/1) at 7PM in the Olin Theater, the African/African American Studies Program is presenting a lecture by Dr. Peter Caster entitled, "Prisons, Race, and Masculinity." You may earn 5 POINTS EXTRA CREDIT by attending his lecture and posting a one-paragraph comment on this blog in which I want you to express what you thought of the talk in general and identify any point which Dr. Caster made which relates to our class on criminal and deviant behavior. Please post your comment NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, 11/4.
LET ME STRESS, YOU MUST POST A COMMENT IN ORDER TO EARN THE 5 POINTS EXTRA CREDIT.
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4 comments:
Peter Caster had a lot of interesting points about minorities and how prison is portrayed throughout media in the United States. It was really interesting that his motivations for all of his work began his sophomore year of high school, and that he actually followed through with it. I never considered how many shows there are about prison and prisoners on TV, and how jail is a fascination among Americans.
He made a lot of interesting points about adults in jail, and over one percent of adults are in jail. While most of those are African American. I can see both sides of the argument because I know of a lot of corrupt policemen who have put innocent men (black and white) in prison. But at the same time a lot of crime is committed in slums where a lot of minorities reside. It's a tough situation, but our country is making progress slowly but surely. I completely agree with the idea that imagined racial fears lead to actual beliefs and incarcerations. The idea is ridiculous, but every generation improves their ideas of race regardless of how they are brought up by their old fashioned parents. Slow improvement for our country is better than none at all. I also do not believe that jail is the place for everyone, and a lot of people get put in their for one mistake. I know rules are rules, but as taxpayers we are paying way too much money to keep a lot of people locked up when most of the time what they really need is psychological help.
Dr. Peter Caster’s lecture was intriguing and I think that he made quite a few points/connections that related to our class. Several aspects stood out to me such as the huge emphasis that mainstream media places on the “innocent man stories”. Dr. Caster pointed out how popular these stories were in everyday shows/movies such as Law and Order, Shawshank Redemption, etc. According to Dr. Caster these fictional programmings substitute the complexity of a criminal by sensationalizing him/her. This phenomenon has become a ubiquitous part of culture. Dr. Caster also pointed out that people seem so captivated by these shows because the prison system and what goes on within its walls is extremely veiled to mainstream society.
I saw a connection between the failures of get tough policies in Dr. Caster’s lecture and what we studied in class. He explained that criminalization and mandatory sentencing are the true reason why there are much more incarcerations today. Also, I saw a small connection in regards to Lombroso and the view of other biological criminologists in Dr. Caster’s statement that black men are naturally more likely to commit crimes. “Do these people have a racial commitment to crime?” I enjoyed Dr. Caster’s lecture and his point about the prison history being central to our national past and present really stood out to me. The growth of incarcerated minorities is a growing trend and the origins of this occurrence dates back pretty far. Now one must wonder, what’s next for the US prison systems? Is change on its way?
Dr. Caster’s lecture on “Prisons, Race, and Masculinity” was very interesting, and delt with many facets of the criminal justice system. In regard to this class it is interesting to me that prisons and penitentiaries were not conceived of in their modern form as a place for long term incarceration and, at least theoretically, a place for reform, until 1787 by Benjamin Rush. Furthermore in their conception they were not intended to be primarily a punishment but, it seems, a way to educate, reform, and reintegrate these members of society.
The fact that the United States imprisons more of its population than any other industrialized country in the world per capita as seen in both class and during this lecture, should raise eyebrows and cause us to consider why so many are imprisoned, and if they deserve to be there. One such cause seems to be due to the largely failed “war on drugs” since the 1970’s. Instead of funding public housing and other necessary programs much of state budgets have been funneled into imprisoning individuals for often relatively minor drug violations, such as laws in New York in the 1970’s which sentenced individuals to a minimum of 15 years to life in prison for possession of marijuana under Governor Rockefeller. This example exemplifies well the fact that crime and punishment are social construction in that something which was legal through the 1930’s could within 40 years become something so disdainful that, in New York at least, sentencing was on par with first-degree murder.
Dr. Peter Caster’s lecture, Prisons, Race, and Masculinity, was captivating, for he shed light on some of the rarely discussed points regarding criminals and crime. I found it interesting how he paralleled analyzing the criminal justice system to working in the ER—it becomes necessary to develop a sort of black sense of humor about the situations you encounter in order to endure the disgust and agony that you feel. He also touched on how most “free” people view themselves as fundamentally different from inmates. Yet, the prisoners raise the question of whether or not the barrier that separates the two groups is a wall or a mirror. The statement, “We’re all just reflections of your world”, leads us to wonder if we are incarcerated individuals’ counterparts.
Several examples from the lecture can be connected to the material we’ve been discussing in class. Components of the deterrence theory arose frequently. When Benjamin Rush first concocted the idea of how a jail should be operated, he said that the facility should strive to train the brain and improve it, so the individual would stray away from crime. Through isolation, Rush believed, could the perpetrator recognize his wrongdoings and work on the skills needed to reintegrate into society. However, the treatment in some correctional facilities today could be categorized as Becaria and Benthem’s definition of “cruel and unusual punishment.” As Dr. Caster mentioned, “Being deprived of freedom and seeing your family is the punishment. Being tortured and raped is not the punishment.” Although torture is unnecessarily practiced among inmates, the officers and superiors at the jails are doing nothing to remedy the problem. It is important that such negative activities are not practiced behind bars because it shapes not only the identity of the victim, but the justice system that incarcerated him. One final point Dr. Caster made was about how, undoubtedly, drugs were the cause for prison expansion, placing people who suffer from a debilitating addiction alongside convicts who are accused of first degree murder. Yet, drug use is clearly a popular American pastime, and the number of drug participants far outnumbers those in captivity. So it becomes necessary to ask, “If everyone does it, is it a crime?” “What human behavior can be tagged as a crime?” Dr. Caster observed that, in the end, it all goes back to laws that are enacted by representatives, but are the will of the people.
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