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MassIncarceration 6 - 24 Feb 2012 - Main.SkylarPolansky
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| | I thought it would be useful to consolidate a conversation that's going on in the class facebook group. The material is interesting, important, and relates to our discussions in this class (most obviously regarding Robinson and his work). Hopefully it will also allow us to procrastinate from finishing torts or con law reading. I apologize for the scattershot nature of this post. I may go back and do more editing / summarizing of the links below if there's any interest or this sparks a discussion. Of course I welcome any interested person to do likewise, or just jump off from one of the articles or points and run with it.
A New Yorker article on mass incarceration that provides something of a historical overview. "The Caging of America" by Adam Glopnik, 1/30/2012. | | | I want to jump on a tangent for a second- I hate the term "future policy-maker" or god forbid "future leader." We haven't actually done anything yet. Last year I was delivering pizza and surprisingly few customers saluted my leadership or policy-making abilities. I suppose at the time I was a future future leader and then transformed into a future leader upon acceptance to law school.
I actually found Glopnik's language aggravating because it proposes a moderate, technocratic solution that would probably get wide support if proved successful, but he feels the need to use a familiar strawman. This is a strawman that Obama, of whom I'm a huge fan, has perfected- there are crazy people on the right, and crazy people on the left, and then there's moderate rational me in the middle. | |
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> | -- ShakedSivan - 22 Feb 2012
Shaked, can you explain your strawman argument a little more? I don’t quite understand it.
I too, despise the phrase “future policy-makers.” When this NYTimes article came out last semester I heard a professor counter the article’s accusation (that top-tier schools are at fault for not teaching their students how to be lawyers) by saying top-tier law schools are not supposed to be teaching its students to be practitioners of law. Top-tier schools assume its students are destined for greater, more influential roles, such as future policy-makers, leaders, professors, and reformers. It’s thus the goal of top-tier schools to teach its students to think critically, assess different policies, network with other fellow future leaders; it’s not the goal to teach us to practice the law.
When I heard this justification I was initially flattered and started patting myself on the back re: the future policies I was going to enact/people I was going to lead. Then I realized I am not future policy-maker or leader. It’s not something I ever considered myself or ever wanted – and it’s not something I want now. I literally want to know how to work the law well – like Robinson. The articles you posted did make me empathize with the prisoners’ plight, but the idea of leading the movement on wide-scale prisoner reform seems daunting and political and like nothing I want to be involved in. I’d rather help people on an individual basis. This is definitely more of a personal tangent but after reading articles like the ones you posted I am often left with less of a desire to reform our whole system, and more of a desire to help the few individuals whose personal stories were told.
-- SkylarPolansky - 23 Feb 2012 |
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