Punishment: The U.S. Record

A Social Research Conference at The New School took place on Thursday, November 30 and Friday, December 1, 2006

The conference examined the foundations of our ideas of punishment, explored the social effects of current practices and searched for viable alternatives to our carceral state.

To order audio CDs of the conference complete and return this form.

Click to listen to the Special Event,
RICHARD GERE and CAREY LOWELL
Reading Prison Writings
Thematic Statement

The decision to organize a conference on how we punish has had several different sources, some obvious - like the staggering increase in the number of people incarcerated in the US since the 1970's, (the US now has the highest incarceration rate in the world despite a significant decrease in its crime rates), and the well known fact that the United States, unlike other Western democracies, reaffirms its characteristic exceptionalism by still mandating capital punishment in many states of the Union - and some less obvious. Among these less obvious reasons for this conference is an interest in the foundations of our ideas of punishment which stem from theology and philosophy and seem to have deep psychological roots which may illuminate current practices. There are questions, as well, about how these ideas play out in our understandings of the coercive power of a democratic state.

We are convening this conference in order to examine punishment and criminal justice in the context of past histories and doctrines in order to better understand the ways in which punishment has become deeply implicated in the social life and social structures of American society. The conference is organized into 6 sessions that ask questions about the why, what, how and who of punishment, which will allow us to better understand the consequences of the current practice of punishment and search for viable alternatives to the carceral state in which we now live.

This conference is supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, The Open Society Institute’s U.S. Justice Fund, the Ford Foundation and The J.M. Kaplan Fund. The conference is also cosponsored by the ACLU.

The New SchoolThe New School Divisions
Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy The New School for General Studies The New School for Social Research Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy Parsons The New School for Design Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts Mannes College The New School for Music The New School for Drama The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music Mannes College The New School for Music
Contact Register Agenda Overview Speakers Links Hotels