A Historical and Contemporary Analysis of Punishment Discourses: Neoliberal Penology in the Age of Colorblindness

• In Event: Revolutionary Criminology: Shifting Toward a 21st Century Radical Paradigm

Abstract

Rehabilitation as an ideal of administrating justice has long been a topic of debate. This paper will examine historical and contemporary discourses regarding punishment in the United States. While contemporary philosophical discourse ambivalently rests between punishment and rehabilitation, justice outcomes nonetheless continue to perpetuate social, economic, and racial injustice. People of color and the poor continue to be the foremost targets of said justice outcomes. While utilizing Packer’s models of criminal justice and historical and contemporary policy, this paper contests the very purpose of punishment in the United States. The authors argue that post-modern justice rests within a neoliberal preference that has shifted punishment from a public interest platform to one of the private sector, thus causing a paradigmatic shifting in the administration of justice and methods of rehabilitation that has largely ascended in silence. The paper concludes with future research implications.

Authors

• Jason Williams, Montclair State University

• Nishaun Battle, Virginia State University