punishment conference at new school 11/30-12/1
there's an exciting punishment conference coming up at the new school at the end of november. some heavy hitters will be presenting, including such first-name luminaries as bruce, jeremy, sting, todd, prince, and jonathon. okay, i was kidding about prince and sting, but they did assemble a stellar group of speakers. i'm on a panel discussing alternatives to a carceral state, moderated by brent staples of the times editorial page.the conference also features a tour at the metropolitan museum of art on artistic representations of punishment, and a reading of prison writings featuring richard gere. the conference isn't free, but it is pretty cheap: $50 or $15 for students.
what would you say on the subject of alternatives to a carceral state? what would you say to richard gere?
posted by christopher uggen @ 12:18 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I'd say: Don't change dog, don't go all hollywood aca-lebrity on us. You are VERY close to "jumping the shark" when you accept an invitation to talk at a conference in which "Richard Gere reads prison writings."
it looks like activism to me. which is fine, just not connected with serious research. its a bunch of liberals dressing up and using fancy words in a very disconnected way from the reality of incarceration. i assume minimum income for speakers is $60-$70K, without the presence of any ex-offenders? its amusing how how you guys succeed the more the average felon suffers.
Prof. Uggen-
I'm a little disappointed to learn that you are not a liberal lap dog. This definitely changes EVERYTHING.
But, I have to ask. Leaving aside the weirdness of the anonymous insult (or commentary), is there anything intersting about it? Some small part of always admired the sheer audacity of my students who fell asleep in my class. I mean, they just put it out there and declared in no uncertain terms: your class sucks. Is that just me? Am I the only sucker who believes bad attention is better than no attention?
As the first anony, I will reassure our host that I was just pulling his leg/gently ribbing, not slamming him.
first anony again (I didn't quite get to the bottom of the comments before springing to the defense of our host w/ clarification of my origianl post): I will from this point forward keep anonymous leg-pulling to myself. I just loved the idea of "Richard Gere reading prison writings" w/ people I know as doin' the right thing sitting in the audience. Sorry for lighting a flame.
I'd say a restitution based system of justice is feasible and effective. Check out Randy Barnett at Georgetown Law School.
thanks, anons, lars, and daniel. restitution has always intrigued me, though i've seen a few such schemes for adolescents where implementation has been a problem.
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