What’s Wrong with Mass Incarceration?
Channel: Havens Wright Center for Social Justice
Date: 2022-07-25

A lecture by Adaner Usmani & Christopher Lewis exploring the problems & injustices of mass incarceration.

Adaner Usmani is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Studies at Harvard University. His research is driven by two questions: Why do some people flourish while others suffer? And, what explains why, in some places but not others, movements or policies emerge to challenge or moderate this inequality? In one project, he explores when and why ordinary individuals manage to coordinate collective action, and how well these patterns explain the forward march of democracy and the extent of economic redistribution. In a different project, he studies the origins and consequences of American mass incarceration.

Christopher Lewis is Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School. His research examines how the law (especially the criminal law) can be more fairly and efficiently administered in response to social and economic inequality in the United States. Before joining the law school faculty, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.