The term "hyper-incarceration" highlights that the tremendous growth in incarceration is concentrated in particular geographic locations (low-income neighborhoods of color) and has concentrated effects felt disproportionately by African Americans. In this webinar, Professor Donna Coker will discuss the enormous growth of the US prison population and the larger phenomenon of what Beth Richie describes as "Prison Nation." She will describe the impact that mass incarceration and the growth of criminalization has on work to prevent and respond to domestic violence and sexual assault. She will discuss how survivors end up in prison for crimes that flow from their victimization; the physical and sexual violence perpetrated against individuals who are incarcerated; and the ways victims of DV and/or SA in neighborhoods targeted for surveillance and arrest related to the "war on drugs" fear police intervention. She will focus her remarks on less well-known consequences of hyper-incarceration that have dramatic effects on DV and SA. Mass incarceration deepens poverty, weakens social networks, and creates trauma-effects that increase the risk of male-on-female domestic violence. She will then discuss how these connections between hyper-incarceration and DV and SA should impact the work we do.
Register for this webinar here.
