Sarat ch. 59 ("Deadly Symbiosis") (pp. 501-510)

Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing ( pp. 12-56)

1. How does Wacquant explain the grossly disproportionate rates of incarceration for African-Americans? How does he explain the timing of the imprisonment boom? How are postwar ghettoes and prisons two aspects of the same social system, and how is that worse than old-style racism of the type that prevailed from 1875 to 1965?
2. Why does the NY Department of Corrections use military-style training for new personnel? What kinds of people does Conover encounter during his training? Are the people Conover describes "right for the job?" Why or why not?
3. Why does Conover give special weight to Sgt. Bloom's analysis of prisons? Who does Bloom say controls life inside the prison? Do you agree with Bloom's assessment? What are its implications?
4. How do the conditions Conover describes match Wacquant's analysis linking ghetto and prison? Does punishment by confinement (at the scale we conduct it currently) do what we want it to do? If not, what alternatives are there?