The ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice: Ending Mass Incarceration in the US by Melisa Oleschuk

This seminar is co-hosted by the Centre for American Legal Studies and the School of Law Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our research centres (the Centre for American Legal Studies, the Centre for Human Rights, the Centre for Science, Law and Policy, and the International Business Law Research Group). Our work is often transdisciplinary, dealing with law's relationship with broadly defined social justice, policy-making, science and much more. Join us for invigorating discussion! 

In this session, we hear from Melisa Oleschuk. Melisa is a second year PhD student at Birmingham City University. Her PhD looks at the role of civil society in translating international human rights law into domestic legal change, engaging with the Universal Periodic Review, and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Campaign for Smart Justice as case studies. Alongside this, Melisa’s research interests include sentencing reforms, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, state engagement with international human rights provisions and policy reform.

Melisa Oleschuk will deliver a research seminar discussion on mass incarceration in the US, followed by interactive Q&A. Details of the session below.

The ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice: Ending Mass Incarceration in the US

About the Session

Mass incarceration is frequently used by scholars to describe the ‘institution’ that has emerged over the past 50 years in the United States (US) criminal justice system. As of 2020, the US incarcerates almost 2 million people. But not all these people have been convicted of a crime, and many are behind bars on non-violent offences such as failing to pay a debt and personal possession of marijuana. The ‘phenomenon’ that warranted its own name (‘mass incarceration’) renders the situation incomparable to the systems in place in other developed democracies around the world. Mass incarceration has two consequences on society: (1) the number of incarcerated people, and (2) collateral consequences. Both of which are having immeasurable impacts on society as it develops; from the disenfranchisement of members from large sectors of the population to economic restrictions that create a school to prison pipeline. It becomes necessary to consider the root of the issue. Mass incarceration is not intentional policy that was passed, but rather the outcome of an overlapping series of laws, political actions, and economics. These were layered onto deepening social divisions and racial exclusions that effectively criminalised the ‘underclass.’ This seminar will briefly explore the different elements that brought about mass incarceration in the US, with the aim to recognise ways in which ‘Smart Justice’ and informed policy reform can start tackling this beast.

This seminar has now concluded but it is available on demand. If you find that you do not have access, you can email the research seminar series leader at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk in order to gain access.