Problem 1: How has incarceration (the act of putting people in prisons) changed since the 1970s?
Problem 2: According to Heather Thompson, what led to this drastic change?
Problem 3: How is incarceration profitable for US corporations?
Problem 4: How does mass incarceration impact voting and the census?
Problem 5: How does mass incarceration impact urban areas? How does it impact rural areas and small towns? How does mass incarceration impact wages for non-prisoners?
Problem 6: What does this tell us about American freedom in the post-1960s period? How do we make sense of this as a response to the many movements of the 1960s era?
Problem 7: Why does Thompson think this issue should frame our understanding of our historical moment?
Problem 8: Do you see any parallels between the rise of mass incarceration and earlier historical periods we have examined?
Heather Ann Thomas "Why mass Incarceration matters" (2010)