Mass Incarceration

Objective: To expose “mass incarceration and allow students to have the chance to use language, context, and peers to understand new words and concepts.

Procedure:

• Ask the students to think about what they know about the word “mass incarceration”. However, have them think silently and not to speak, to allow everyone to be able to decide within themselves if they do or do not know what exactly this word is referring to

• Now take only the first word, “mass”. What does this mean, since it’s a simpler common word. Have the students be able to speak out, since this word will give people more comfort about speaking about this word. (Mass definition- large amount of quantity)

• Lastly, follow this conversation and have students think about only the word “incarceration”, but still do not have students speak about this. After a few moments, tell them you will read off a list of synonyms that best relate to this word. (This tactic will allow the practice of taking old knowledge and attaching it to new knowledge, as well as give those students who do not know this word to be more confident realize that they don’t have this word in their vocabulary) 

• Finally, open for discussion, ask students where they hear this kind of word. What settings are these synonyms found in language. Who uses these words and why? But be prepared to provide examples for all words listed, just in case no one wants to speak.

First Activity Troubleshooting

• If students go completely silent during discussion, bring some common media shows into the mix to demonstrate how these words are used in language. 

• If students talk out loud when it’s supposed to be silent time, allow it. Have them share their ideas, and based off time, can just skip to the second activity.

Incarceration Synonyms

• Imprisonment

“he was sentenced to two months' imprisonment”

• Internment

“he was threatened with internment in a concentration camp”

• Confinement 

“he was immediately released from his confinement”

• Detention

"one of the effects of police detention is isolation from friends and family”

• Custody

“my father was being taken into custody”

Objective: To practice hearing numbers and decipher between year or statistic by using context, nature of language, top – down, and bottom – up thinking.

Procedure:

• You will be the judge and the leader of this activity; however, you can have them discuss in pairs if you want to give them two different sentences based off how well your learners are able to take information in.

• Explain how numbers can be interpreted in two different ways in the following listening, from a time standpoint, or from a static standpoint. Example: 2019 was just last year! We have about 34,000 students at CU Boulder!

• Explain and teach what is the nature of hearing years, versus what is the nature of hearing statistics.

1. When hearing years, since the year 1000, we have always had 4 digit years, until we hit year 10000, which is 8000 years from now, so it is safe to train our ears to listen from 4 digit numbers and document them as a year if the context matches. But if they are under 4 digits, but have AD or BC attached to the name, then it is automatically granted as a year.

2. However, when we talk about years from 1001 to 1999, we typically say nineteen, ninety-nine, and not one thousand nine hundred and nine, or eighteen sixty-five. But! For years 2001 to 2019, we say two thousand and one, not twenty, one. This demonstrates that language is dynamic and only practice will best train our ears to learn the nature of language.

3. And lastly, if the number does not pass these tests from 1 and 2, most likely it is a static and not a year. 

• Start with having everyone answering out loud the first two guesses, that way everyone understands what the objective is and what the students must answer back.

• In order to keep attention, let everyone know that you are going to ask every student, go around the room, a question. And they must answer based on the context clues, test, and using the two types of thinking.

• Read off the list of examples of numbers being used in language and have each student be able to answer individually, allow peers to correct if given the wrong answer, but also leave room for students to use these tests.

Caveats: 

• Speed is your enemy; these concepts are hard to grasp and rushing through it and not giving students time to think will be a major set back and prevent any learning.

• Allow all students to have silence to think, when the activities ask the students to think.

Second Activity Troubleshooting

• If in a crunch for time, pick only a few sentences to read and have everyone answer collectively, but have someone explain what the number in context means and what test did they use to find that out.

• Have students work in pairs rather than answer out loud, depending on confidence of the classroom. Have you ask the question to the whole class, and have each student run it by their neighbor what their answer is.

• If not able to get through the list, just focus on the points 1 – 3 on testing the numbers and make that a priority. 

Example Sentences for Second Activity

• In 1958, Egypt and Syria united and renamed United Arab Republic or known as the UAR.

• 2019 released several movies with titles from Avengers to Frozen 2 to The Lion King.

• Summers in the planet Uranus lasts 21 years.

• The War of 1812 had the United States take on the greatest naval power in the world, Great Britain.

• More than 6000 people with pillow-related injuries check into U.S. emergency rooms every year.

• The 2001 Ford Explorer remained at the top selling car for another year.

• Apple dates all the way back to 1976.

• About 39,000 gallons of water are used to produce the average car.

• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

• The average person eats almost 1500 pounds of food a year.

• WALMART generates 3 million in revenues every 7 minutes.

• 2020 is the Chinese year of the rat.

• The largest diamond ever found was 3106 carats.

• Arthur won a battle against the Saxons in 500 AD. 

Procedure:

• Have students watch to this short video 2 1/2 minute video on Mass Incarceration

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/404890/prison-inherited-trait/

• In the first 90 seconds of the video there are two slides with dates and statistics. Freeze the video on each of the charts and have students identify the dates and the statistics. 

Slide 1: Dates are 1940 and 2000. In 1940, there were 100 prisoners per 100,000 in population but by 2000 there were 700 prisoners per 100,000 in population, in the United States.

Slide 2: Dates are 1979 and 2000. In 1979, 15% of black men without a high school education were in the justice system but by 2009 that number had increased to 68%.

Procedure:

• Have the students in small groups consider some or all of the following questions:

Who is most likely to be imprisoned in the United States?

What factors increase the likelihood that an individual will be imprisoned?

In your opinion, why do other countries have lower rates of incarceration?

What are some alternatives to prison?

How does mass incarceration impact communities, especially poor communities, in the United States?

• Have each group summarize and report on their discussion to the whole class.

Activity: Two Truths and a Lie

Introduction: Building upon the previous activity, this activity encourages the use of statistics to explain mass incarceration.

Procedure:

• Explain to students that “this activity is called Two Truths and a Lie. You have probably already played it in a previous class. In this version though, you will research information on mass incarceration and create two truths and a lie using statistics.”

• To encourage speaking, this activity will be done in teams.

• Have each team find a credible source on mass incarceration and draft two truths and a lie from the source. For example, using the Atlantic video from our appendix section students could create the following statements.

  • In 1979, 15% of black men who dropped out of high school were in prison. (True)

  • In 2009, 68% of black men who dropped out of high school were in prison. (True)

  • In 2020, 30% of black men who dropped out of high school were in prison. (False)

• Once the teams have researched and written two truths and a lie, have students read their statements to each other and guess the two truths.

Options: This activity can be lengthened or shortened as class time allows by 1) having students draft more than one set of truths and lies, or 2) having students present their truths and lies to more than one student.

Activity: Flyswatter

Introduction: This has been a heavy lesson. To lighten the classroom and have some fun, have the students play flyswatter for a few minutes before ending the class.

Procedure:

• Write on the board a combination of dates and statistics used during the lesson. 

• Divide the class in two teams.

• Put two chairs in front of the board, and have a student from each team sit in the chair.

• Hand a flyswatter to the two seated students.

• Read a statistic or date on the board.

• The first student to swat the correct date or statistic with a flyswatter wins that round!

Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/

Mr. Craft's Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wp.lps.org/ncraft/criminal-justice/criminal-justice-assignments-and-documents/

Appendix: 

Mass Incarceration, Visualized. (2015, October 2), Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51_pzax4M0