This online course will explore key issues related to capital punishment, including its political implications, and future alternatives, by incorporating and evaluating up-to-date research in law and psychology. DISMANTLING THE DEATH PENALTY: RESEARCH-BASED ANSWERS TO THE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS uses diverse sources of information, provides social scientific research, and examines capital punishment in historical, political, and moral contexts.  The American prison system has fallen predominantly on poor communities of color. The United States incarcerates more of its own than any other country in the world. Roughly 25% of the world’s total prison population is here in the United States, with over 2,500 inmates on death row, 2.3 million people behind bars, and 4.4 million people under some form of probation or parole supervision manifesting this country’s racialized mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and human rights catastrophe.    Whether you're considering or have already embraced the role of an abolitionist, we invite you to join us this Spring 25 semester. We'll be reading and discussing the question of "The Death Penalty" through the text DISMANTLING THE DEATH PENALTY: RESEARCH-BASED ANSWERS TO THE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS. This is a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about capital punishment and its inherently flawed legal processes. Formerly incarcerated individuals who are active in transformative justice and prison abolition movements will join us for a few sessions. This online course will meet on Mondays between 6:00 to 7:30 pm starting Monday, February 9. Our last class is on Monday, March 30 (NO CLASS - February 16 and March 16). Please note that we will have two additional three hours each of in-person tutorial session. Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice, Prison Initiative Reading Group organized and initiated this course.

This online course will explore the social justice road to abolition through Ruth Wilson Gilmore's work over three decades. The book presents "her singular contribution to the politics of abolition as theorist, researcher, and organizer" and offers ways to navigate the unsettling, chaotic, and lawless present. The American prison system has fallen predominantly on poor communities of color. The United States incarcerates more of its own than any other country in the world. Roughly 25% of the world’s total prison population is here in the United States, with over 2,500 inmates on death row, 2.3 million people behind bars, and 4.4 million people under some form of probation or parole supervision manifesting this country’s racialized mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and human rights catastrophe. Whether you're considering or have already embraced the role of an abolitionist, we invite you to join us this Fall 25 semester. We'll be reading and discussing the question of "Prison Abolition" through the text ABOLITION GEOGRAPHY: ESSAYS TOWARD LIBERATION and exploring that the prison is a symptom of the decline of civilization. This is a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions through the writings of the astute thinkers of punishment, policing, and abolition. People active in transformative justice and prison abolition movements will join us for a few sessions. This online course will meet on Mondays between 6:00 to 7:30 pm starting Monday, September 29th. Our last class is on Monday, November 10th (NO CLASS – Monday, October 13th / Indigenous Day). Please note that we will have two additional three hours each of in-person tutorial sessions. Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice, Prison Initiative Reading Group organized and initiated this course.