Instruction
Race to Incarcerate by Mar Mauer
This book is similar to Rich get Richer, but shorter, and makes a more defined argument that incarceration has failed as a crime control strategy, yet increased the problems for minority and poor youth. You can see the assignment for it on the BB site. And before you do the essay, if you did read the book, check out this Ted Talk another one of our students pointed me toward.
The book report must answer the following questions:
• What do you see as the main technical and moral problems with our justice system?
• How do the use of drug laws, especially, lead to more incarcerations?
• Are these incarcerations effective in reducing the kind of crime we are really afraid of?
• What are the moral and ethical problems with our current system?
• What are some current events where we have seen race problems made worse by our criminal justice system.
o Do you see any connections in the events today and the problems detailed in the book?
o If you could revamp our current justice system to make it fairer, what specific changes would you make?