Final essay based on guest lectures, things we talk about, readings
Lecture 1
Overview
What is a crime?
- Acts prohibited by law, against society norms: deviant acts
- Who, ppl who act against law / deviantly
- Based on the society
- Social construction
Anybody can be criminalized
- Western history shows that lawmakers favour those in power and criminalize ppl who
pose a threat to them
Carceral Institutions
- Provincial institutions - more than 70% of Ott - Carleton DTC are legally innocent
- Youth facilities
- Immigration detention centres
- Federal pens
- Psychiatric treatment centres - NCR (not criminally responsible)
- Centres for women
Lecture 2 Incarceration & Abolition Jan 19
Canada
- 82% of prisoners cannot read at a grade 10 level
- Access to educational services in prisons is severely limited and unfunded
- Heavily policed areas, more contact with law enforcement and CJS
- Intergenerational trauma
- $0.65 average pay / hr for prisoners working for Corcan
- Private company that profits from the labour of prisoners
- Prisoners rights are not protected properly
- Minimum wage does not apply to prisoners
Prison Abolition Movement is Growing
- Since 2011 groups like the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project etc. (in
Canada)
Vengeance, punishment, an eye for an eye
How do we learn these concepts as children?
- Children movies - evil people inherently bad, end they get punished
, Media / films
- Glorifying vengeance, COPS tv show
How do we see them in adult lives?
- Seems easier to do vengeance and throw ppl in jail
Are prisons natural, necessary?
- They are considered a “natural” concept - hard to imagine life without it
Other social structures that were once considered natural
- Cannabis was illegal, now legal
- Domestic violence against wife once legal, now illegal
- Colonialism
Prisons as a Geographical solution to socio-economic problems
It is the logic of building and creating more prisons instead of using that money on resolving
socio-economic problems. Providing jobs, stimulating economic development, and
recession-proof industry. Building prisons in rural areas may force individuals to visit them and
spend more money, with providing jobs prisons indeed create an influx of labour, and there is a
logic that there will always be criminals and prisons.
- Lack of public transportation to rural communities = ppl will not likely be able to visit =
separation of families
- Prisons are NOT recession proof
*****
Coalition Against Proposed Prison
- 2020 provincial government initiated plans to build new prison in Kemptville
- $500 mill ove 30 yr public-private partnership
- Since then criminologists and community members have been advocating against the
new prison
- Most recently, legal action was taken in order to have the government decision judicially
review
Idea that only bad people go to jail
“Othering” of prisoners allows us to justify the existence of prisons
- Thinking that the prison as a disconnect from our own lives - Angela Davis
- “Could not be me”
Role of Social Inequality in the construction of Crime
- Factors historically linked to Trauma
- Racism colonization
Lecture 1
Overview
What is a crime?
- Acts prohibited by law, against society norms: deviant acts
- Who, ppl who act against law / deviantly
- Based on the society
- Social construction
Anybody can be criminalized
- Western history shows that lawmakers favour those in power and criminalize ppl who
pose a threat to them
Carceral Institutions
- Provincial institutions - more than 70% of Ott - Carleton DTC are legally innocent
- Youth facilities
- Immigration detention centres
- Federal pens
- Psychiatric treatment centres - NCR (not criminally responsible)
- Centres for women
Lecture 2 Incarceration & Abolition Jan 19
Canada
- 82% of prisoners cannot read at a grade 10 level
- Access to educational services in prisons is severely limited and unfunded
- Heavily policed areas, more contact with law enforcement and CJS
- Intergenerational trauma
- $0.65 average pay / hr for prisoners working for Corcan
- Private company that profits from the labour of prisoners
- Prisoners rights are not protected properly
- Minimum wage does not apply to prisoners
Prison Abolition Movement is Growing
- Since 2011 groups like the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project etc. (in
Canada)
Vengeance, punishment, an eye for an eye
How do we learn these concepts as children?
- Children movies - evil people inherently bad, end they get punished
, Media / films
- Glorifying vengeance, COPS tv show
How do we see them in adult lives?
- Seems easier to do vengeance and throw ppl in jail
Are prisons natural, necessary?
- They are considered a “natural” concept - hard to imagine life without it
Other social structures that were once considered natural
- Cannabis was illegal, now legal
- Domestic violence against wife once legal, now illegal
- Colonialism
Prisons as a Geographical solution to socio-economic problems
It is the logic of building and creating more prisons instead of using that money on resolving
socio-economic problems. Providing jobs, stimulating economic development, and
recession-proof industry. Building prisons in rural areas may force individuals to visit them and
spend more money, with providing jobs prisons indeed create an influx of labour, and there is a
logic that there will always be criminals and prisons.
- Lack of public transportation to rural communities = ppl will not likely be able to visit =
separation of families
- Prisons are NOT recession proof
*****
Coalition Against Proposed Prison
- 2020 provincial government initiated plans to build new prison in Kemptville
- $500 mill ove 30 yr public-private partnership
- Since then criminologists and community members have been advocating against the
new prison
- Most recently, legal action was taken in order to have the government decision judicially
review
Idea that only bad people go to jail
“Othering” of prisoners allows us to justify the existence of prisons
- Thinking that the prison as a disconnect from our own lives - Angela Davis
- “Could not be me”
Role of Social Inequality in the construction of Crime
- Factors historically linked to Trauma
- Racism colonization
