Professor Katherine Beckett, UWCHR Steering Committee member and faculty in the Departments of Sociology and Law, Societies, and Justice, has published a piece in The American Prospect, titled “Violence, Mass Incarceration, and the Myth of Monstrosity.” The article draws on work related to the Rethinking Punishment initiative, led by Prof. Beckett and Prof. Steve Herbert.
“In the United States…nearly 50,000 people have been condemned to die in prison on the premise that they are beyond redemption. But the impact of this myth of monstrosity extends far beyond the prison walls, limiting our ability to develop an effective and humane solution to the problem of violence as well as meaningful alternatives to the policies that made the U.S. the world leader in incarceration.”
Read the rest of the article at The American Prospect.
Prof. Beckett’s work with Rethinking Punishment has been featured previously in the Cited podcast, in a piece called “Superpredators Revisited.” New episodes of the Cited podcast featuring the Rethinking Punishment Radio Project are coming soon!