Prospectus research

A prospectus is a 1-2 page proposal for the paper that you plan to write.
Find 1 possible research topics that you are interested in (your topic should be related to our class topic: Detention and Incarceration). Your topic should take up a currently existing or historical form of state-based punishment, punitive state action, or recent event that has not been taken up explicitly (or at length) in the course readings.
Some possible examples include: sentencing, plea- bargaining, appeals processes, private prisons, immigration detention, inmate segregation, sentencing, racial profiling, broken-windows policing, juvenile detention, prison huger-strikes, administrative detention, prison rebellions (recent or historical), collateral consequences to incarceration, prison architecture, jail expansion, racial profiling, restorative justice, drug courts, the death penalty, life without parole, probation/parole, solitary confinement reform (e.g. specific recent legal changes), “Education Based Incarceration” (LA’s jail education program), specific media portrayals of incarceration (e.g. OITNB, the Wire, etc.), in-prison higher education programs, etc. (the list is, obviously, nearly limitless).
Use your topic and prepare the prospectus. In this paper you will have to do 4 discrete parts (which in total should take up no more than 2 pages total):

1. A clear statement of the specific case/practices /events/concepts/ implications/debates that your paper will explore;
3. A statement of the specific way in which this practice is punitive (or is thought not to be punitive) in how we understand it and why we need a “theoretical upgrade” to better understand it;
5. A preliminary list of 2-3 possible critical/sociological frameworks or theorists that you might use to analyze the case (i.e. who do you want to use from the first parts of the course to re-interpret the practice?);
6. A preliminary bibliography of at least 10 scholarly books and articles that you’ve found on this empirical case. If you rely primarily on journalistic or non-scholarly sources, then you must have at least 20 sources and must document their reliability and authority. This bibliography MUST be properly formatted.

Sample Solution