Carceral Geographies: Explaining Mass Incarceration in the U.S.

How did the United States come to have the largest incarcerated population in the world and why are people across the nation calling for an end to over policing and mass incarceration, some even for the abolition of prison? What is abolition and how have the enduring legacies of colonialism impacted contemporary processes that sustain the carceral state? How has local, state, and federal legislation influenced prison expansion? These questions are at the heart of carceral geographic inquiry and this course is designed to explore and explain the socio-spatial articulations of carcerality through critical engagement with a range of social-geographic and political-economic theory.