You are given the power to alter the course of how “justice”

You will answer the following hypothetical scenario:

You are given the power to alter the course of how “justice” is delivered in the contemporary United States. What sorts of policies, efforts, decisions, etc, would you enact? Thinking about the history and contemporary development of policing, mass incarceration, and criminalization and how they are shaped by race, class and gender, what should “justice” look like?

To answer this question, please map out one central “reform” that you would propose for the US criminal justice system to tackle racial, class and gendered disparities. There are distinctions between “reformist reforms” versus “non-reformist reforms.”

A reform refers to changing the existing institution through gradual changes. Non-reformist reforms refer to focus on structural changes to society that reduce contact with the criminal justice system and transform the relations of power that shape punishment.

You are required to draw from AT LEAST FOUR of the readings and materials. Think about the connections between institutions such as the family, education system, government, police, prisons, criminal courts, parole/bail, etc., and how one navigates based on their positionality (race, class, gender, age, residency, sexuality, sexual expression, legal status, etc).

You may only use up to one documentary/media clip and the rest have to be readings. You might even find it helpful to do some of your own outside research that can inform your answer (please cite this at the bottom of answer, in any format you like).

What I want to see here is creativity, rigor, and critical thinking.

If you are using outside readings, please include a separate reference page and cite in the format you’d like. Otherwise, if you are using provided readings just in-text citation (Author Last Name, Page #).

Answer preview

The United States, over the years, had to deal with extensive discontent amongst persons of color due to the social justice and inequality most are forced to contend with. Most people of color in the country believe that they are over-represented in the American criminal justice system, especially within its prison population (Hinton et al., 2020). This profound sense of unfairness has been a constant characteristic and source of criticism for the United States criminal justice system. The demonstrations that followed the killing of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor at the hands of law enforcement personnel highlighted the urgency of reforming

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