Sociology 389: Project Community – Criminal Justice

GSI: Rosa Peralta
Office: 4520 LSA
Phone: 615 0487
Office Hours: Wed: 12 3pm (or by appointment)
Email: rosap {at} umich(.)edu

Seminar: Tuesdays, 4:00 5:30
Coordinators:
400: Caitlin Patterson/ Maria Maridino
401: Jason Otto/ Bryan Yaldou
402: Vahbiz Karanjia
403: Jamie Taylor/ Meredith Swartz
404: Desiree Hunter
405: Tiffany Williams/ Omari Jackson
407: Kelly Corcoran

I. About Project Community

Project Community is a partnership between the Ginsberg Center for Community Service Learning and the Department of Sociology. Rosa (me) will be your direct link to Professor Mark Chesler in Sociology. In addition, other important names and numbers to know are:

Joe Galura, Director of Project community
Sean de Four, Associate Director of Project community
Melanie Bunce, Program Assistant for Criminal Justice

II. Required Text

Each section will have three books. They are available at Shaman Drum.

A. All Sections 400-407: Marc Mauer. 1999. Race to incarcerate.

B. Sections: 400 and 401 (Juvenile):

1. Males, Mike A. 1996. The Scapegoat Generation: America's War on Adolescents.

2. Siegel, Larry and Joseph Senna. 1997. Juvenile Delinquency. Theory, Practice, and Law, 6th edition. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.

C. Sections: 402, 404, 407 and 405 (Men):

1. Jeffrey H. Reiman (1998) The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice.

2. Katheryn K. Russell. 1998. The color of crime: racial hoaxes, white fear, black protectionism, police harassment, and other
macroaggressions.

D. Sections 403 and 405 (Women):

1. Joanne Belknap, 2001. The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Second Edition).

2. Barbara Owen. 1998. in the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison (SUNY Series in Women, Crime and Criminology).

III. Course Requirements

In order to receive credit for the course, you must

1. Attend your service site every week
2. Attend and participate in seminar every Tuesday
3. Complete a weekly journal assignment
4. Complete weekly reading assignments
5. Complete a midterm project
6. Complete a final project

IV. Service

Students are expected to fulfill the service requirements of their section. You may miss site once without penalty. Since it is difficult to schedule make up hours, students need to act responsibly and with consideration for their classmates and for those that count on your service each week. If you miss more than one section, then you will not receive credit for the class. Of course, special circumstances will be taken into consideration.

V. Assignments

1. For Coordinators:

a. Students will complete weekly journal assignments designed to aid in considering questions related to both the readings and your experiences at service sites. These assignments may vary by section and will be designed, received and read by your coordinators. I (Rosa) will also read some of the journal assignments you turn in.

b. Students are expected to complete reading assignments and be prepared to discuss them in section each week. You will not be able to complete the written assignments without doing the readings.

2. Assignments for the GSI: Students will complete a midterm creative project and a final project/paper. All assignments will require the students to think critically about their service experiences and the sociological issues raised by the readings, the coordinators and the GSI (Rosa). Guidelines for the assignments will be passed out during the semester.

3. Assignment Timetable:

a. Midterm: February 18th

b. Final Project: Noon on April 14th

VI. SCHEDULE OF READINGS:

January 7:
Introduction to Project Community All sections will meet together and then we will break into our respective groups.
Topics: course logistics, site descriptions and administrative questions.

January 14: Introduction to Service Learning Reading: All SectionsKahn, "On Experiential Education and Service Learning" in http://www.umich.edu/ ocsl/Proj Community/coord/kahn.html
Howard, On Experiential Learning: Distinguishing Traditional and Experiential Learning," http://www.umich.edu/ ocsl/Proj Community/coord/howard.html

Journal Assignment: Why are you taking this class? What do you plan to contribute to it? What do you hope to get from it?

January 21: Intro. To Sociology
Peter Berger [1963] Invitation to Sociology. A Humanistic Perspective: Ch. 1: http://www.pscw.uva.nl/sociosite/TOPICS/texts/berger.od
C. Wright Mills (1959). The Sociological Imagination. Ch. 1: "The Promise": http://www.clark.edu/ goldman/socimagination.html

Journal Assignment: What do you perceive your role at site to be? Individually? As a group? How may this role differ from you other everyday roles in college and in your private life?

January 28: The Institution and its Experiment
Mauer. Race to Incarcerate. Ch. 1 and 2 (pgs.1 41).

Journal Assignment: Who are the people in prisons and jails in the United States? Why are they there?

February 4: Crime and the Justice System
Mauer. Race to Incarcerate. Ch. 3 5 (pgs.42 99).

Journal Assignment: What is the purpose of the criminal justice system? Does the system "work"? What does or doesn't it accomplish?

February 11: Race, Drugs and Limitations
Mauer. Race to Incarcerate. Ch. 6 8 (pgs.100 161).

Journal Assignment: Do the police serve communities or governments? All communities? How might policing operate in a more user friendly way? How would things be different if everybody were seen as a potential "criminal"? Would the police be "better" or "worse"?

February 18: (Midterm Project Due Today)
Mauer. Race to Incarcerate. Ch. 9 12 (pg. 162 194)

****And each section please read the following:"'
Sections: 400 and 401: Siegel. Juvenile Delinquency. Chapter 1 and 12
Sections: 402, 404 and 407: J. Reiman. And The Poor: Ch. 1.
Sections 403 and 405: Belknap. Invisible Woman: Chapter 1.

Journal Assignment: Is the prison system inherently violent? Why or why not? How might the prison be different for women, juveniles or people with HIV/AIDS? Is difference because of the systems or because of the individual?

February 25: Spring Break No Classes

March 4:
Sections: 400 and 401: Siegel. Juvenile Delinquency. Chapter 2 and 3.
Sections: 402, 404 and 407: J. Reiman. And The Poor: 2 and 3.
Sections 403 and 405: Belknap. Invisible Woman: Ch. 2 and 3.

Journal Assignment: What does affirmative action have to do with the people in prison/jail? Is access to education and jobs connected to ending up in prison/jail? In what ways is it or isn't it?

March 11:
Sections: 400 and 401: Siegel. Juvenile Delinquency: Ch. 4 and 6.
Sections: 402, 404 and 407: J. Reiman. And The Poor: 4 and conclusion.
Sections 403 and 405: Belknap. Invisible Woman: Ch. 4 and 5.

Journal Assignment: Are we locking up people for being poor? Why are so many people in prison for drug addiction and poverty related crimes? What could we be doing as alternatives to incarceration?

March 18:
Sections: 400 and 401: Siegel. Juvenile Delinquency. Ch. 10 and 11.
Sections: 402, 404 and 407: J. Reiman. And The Poor: appendix and paper insert.
Sections 403 and 405: Barbara Owen, In the Mix. Ch. 1 and 2.

Journal Assignment: Site specific

April 1:
Sections: 400 and 401: Mike Males. Scapegoat Generation. Ch. 1 and 4.
Sections: 402, 404 and 407: K. Russell. Color of Crime. Ch. 1 4 (pg. 1 68)
Sections 403 and 405: Barbara Owen, In the Mix. Ch. 3 and 4.

Journal Assignment: Site specific

April 8: site specific readings/movie and Journal Assignment

April 14: Final Project is Due by noon on April 14th in my locked mailbox in 3009 LS&A

April 15:
Wrap up. Presentation of Final Project. All sections will meet together.