By Suzi Morales
innovation
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Photograph by Adobe Stock
winter 2023
There isn’t just one criminal justice system in the United States, says Professor Stephen Cody.
“There are at least 3,144 criminal justice systems—one for each county,” he says. “Most people who are incarcerated serve their sentences in state jails and prisons” rather than federal ones. For that reason, Cody’s Mass Incarceration course underscores the importance of understanding how criminal jurisdictions differ.
This spring, the NPR program Brilliant Boston included Cody’s course in a feature on popular classes at area institutions. The course is innovative in its focus away from federal prisons, where many people are incarcerated on long drug sentences, and toward state institutions, where more than half of people are incarcerated for violent offenses. “To talk about meaningful reform of criminal justice requires talking about violence—and how to prevent violence without always looking to law enforcement as the solution,” Cody says.
Professor Stephen Cody
Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
The course’s expansive viewpoint attracts a wide cross-section of students, from law enforcement families to aspiring public defenders. Among topics discussed are the role of race, prosecutorial discretion, and the progressive prosecution movement, as well as re-entry after release.
“No matter what your perspective is when you come into the seminar,” Cody said during the radio segment, “my goal is for you to come out having critically evaluated your assumptions.”