Background:
In this module, you learned about incarceration or, as some would call it, the ‘Carceral States of America’. Many of the effects and causes of these systems overlap. For this discussion, you may utilize material relating to any systems of confinement, but the example offered in your prompt is specifically related to criminal incarceration.
Below, you will see a chart from a U.S. Department of Corrections website. It simplistically details the “cycle of recidivism” and offers the state’s proposed solution to “breaking the cycle” in effort to reduce the incarcerated population.
Prompt:
In this discussion, we will be thinking about what goes on “under the hood”—that is: What values or ideologies drive and reinforce the “cycle” of mass incarceration or detention?
This will be a critical thinking discussion. You have been provided with ample concerns in need of addressing if America is to lose its #1 spot as the country with the highest incarceration rates in the world.
The chart below, “Breaking the Cycle of Recidivism” shows a very simplistic model that doesn’t capture the complexity that you all are now aware of. It implies that, to break the cycle of recidivism – or the tendency for repeating offenses – a criminal need only leave a “correctional facility” and enter into a “reentry program” in order to become a “productive community member.”
***I HAVE ATTACHED AN IMAGE OF THE CHART DOWN BELOW, PLEASE LOOK AT IT TO ANSWER THE DISCUSSION***
Post:
1) Consider what you learned in Module 11 (and in previous models) and apply it to the chart shown above.
2) Talk about the human impact of the criminal justice or immigration/detention complex and problematize some point in the chart.
You may choose to address how factors of race, class, gender, policing and surveillance, employment, health, community connections, social relationships, cultural perceptions of criminals, etc. make the model problematic or ineffective.
Essentially, your task is to incorporate what you’ve learned into a critique—what nuances are being omitted from this model that perpetuate incarceration, recidivism, or detention? You may put yourself in the shoes of individuals who have experienced confinement, or think at the community level to start.
3) Make sure to talk about incarceration as a social institution and what ideologies and/or policies shape American systems of confinement.