Race and the Criminal Justice System

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with an estimated 7 million people under correctional supervision—many of whom are disproportionately racial and ethnic minorities. In November, the 10th annual Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies—titled Police States, Prison Nations—analyzed racial ideologies and the contours of the carceral state. 

Keynote speakers included Paul Butler, a professor of law at Georgetown and one of the nation’s most widely consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice, and Dylan Rodríguez, a scholar-activist from the University of California at Riverside who has published and spoken widely about racial genocide, state violence, civil rights, social identity, and liberation. The symposium also included perspectives of students, faculty, activists, community leaders, and artists.

The symposium concluded with a performance of the Race Monologues, an emotionally charged and thoughtful expression of students’ experiences with racism, ethnicity, and personal identity.

Symposium cochairs Seraphie Allen CAS ’15, Kayla Nachtsheim CAS ’15, and Mikaela Aguilar CAS ’15 with keynote speaker and scholar-activist Dylan Rodríguez.