- Project Summary: In no more than 200 words, provide a brief description of your project, including the key questions your project attempts to answer and a brief discussion of how you intend to answer those questions.
- Deadline: March 1st Friday, 11:59 pm
I propose to investigate the effects of neoliberalism on incarceration in the United States. In the 1960’s, before the US adopted neoliberal ideals, the US prison population was 332,945. In the year 2000 the prison population had exponentially increased, with 2,042,479 individuals behind bars. The sharp increase in incarceration in the US seems to align with the adoption of neoliberal principles, both beginning in the 1970’s. I will seek to understand both the role that neoliberalism plays in increasing incarceration, and how incarceration supports neoliberalism. Specifically, I hope to look into the prison industrial complex, and understand how the private contracting of prisoners to work encourages the government and private interest groups to detain people at high rates. I am also interested in understanding how mass incarceration is rationalized as ‘justice’ enacted by the state on individuals who, through a neoliberal lens, committed crimes by choice. Clearly, race and class play a major role in the US prison system, and I am also interested in understanding how neoliberalism systematically targets specific populations. I hope to research the US prison system over time, and how it has developed, together with neoliberalism, to become a business that generated capitol for some, and poverty for others.
Comments:
This is a great topic, Natalie. Your summary is clear, well-written, and well-articulated. I am glad to see that you aim to address both sides of the relationship between neoliberalism and mass incarceration: how neoliberalism has led to mass incarceration and how mass incarceration perpetuates neoliberalism. But keep in mind that you will need to specify what aspects of neoliberalism you will explore for each side.
Also, you should definitely check out Loic Wacquant’s work. I taught his work on mass incarceration before and I’d be happy to discuss it with you.
I look forward to reading your final project.