23 Oct 2013: Sociology Seminar

Issued: Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:42:00 BST

Devolving the Carceral State: Race, Reentry and the Micro-politics of Urban Poverty Management

Professor Reuben J Miller (University of Michigan)

4.00-5.30pm, Room 916 Building, Adam Smith Building

Abstract
This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of prisoner reentry programming in Chicago to better understand the strategies reentry organizations employ to rehabilitate prisoners and the ways in which those  strategies articulate with larger social policy processes. Prisoner reentry is a hybrid welfare state-criminal justice institution. As the rehabilitative strategy of choice in the current age, the ascendance and proliferation of  reentry services throughout low income communities of color represent the long standing collusion between social welfare and criminal justice actors to manage marginalized populations and a formal reconfiguration of the state, altering its scope, reach and consequence in the lives of the urban poor. I detail the experiences of former prisoners participating in reentry services and discuss the implications of reentry for race relations, punishment, and social welfare policy in the United States.

All welcome

The Sociology Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958. 

Any enquiries about the seminar series can be addressed to: Andrew.Smith.2@glasgow.ac.uk