Webinar Archive:  Ending Mass Incarceration (EMI) Series

Webinar Date:  May 16, 2017

 

Description

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 discusses the enormous growth of the US prison population and the larger phenomenon of what Beth Richie describes as “Prison Nation.”  She describes the impact that mass incarceration and the growth of criminalization has on work to prevent and respond to domestic violence and sexual assault.  She discusses 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 focuses 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  then discusses how these connections between hyper-incarceration and DV and SA should impact the work we do.

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Note:  Donna Coker presented a webinar on a similar topic on May 12, 2016.  To access that recording click here.  To access the PowerPoint and materials from that webinar, click here.

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About the Presenter

Donna Coker is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law.  Professor Coker’s scholarship focuses on criminal law, gender, and inequality.  Her research concerns three major areas:  the connection between economic vulnerability and domestic violence; restorative justice and other alternative criminal justice interventions; and gender and criminal law doctrine.  She was co-chair of the national conference, Converge! Reimagining the Movement to End Gender Violence, held in Miami in 2014.  She is the co-author/investigator of a recently published national survey, Responses from the Field:  Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Policing, which reports survey results from over 900 service providers and attorneys.  She is a board member of Media for Change and co-creator (with Ahjané Macquoid) of the Reimagining the Movement to End Gender Violence web project.  Professor Coker has a J.D. (1991) from Stanford Law School, an M.S.W. (1982) from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a B.S.W. (1978) from Harding University.  Before attending law school, Professor Coker worked as a social worker/advocate in the domestic violence field for 10 years.

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Suggested Participants

Anyone interested in learning more about why the incarceration rates in the United States are among the highest in the world and about the devastating consequences of this “hyper-incarceration” will benefit from this webinar.  This may include community- and system-based advocates, criminal justice professionals, and other practitioners.

 

Click here to access recording.  The PowerPoint (and any other documents from the webinar) is available by clicking here.