Marc Morjé Howard is Professor of Government and Law at Georgetown University, and he is the author of Unusually Cruel: Prisons, Punishment, and the Real American Exceptionalism, which will be published by Oxford University Press in July 2017. He is the founding Director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative, which brings together scholars, practitioners, and students to examine the problem of mass incarceration from multiple perspectives. He also teaches regularly in the Prison Scholars Program at the Jessup Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Maryland. His work addresses the deep challenges of contemporary democracy and the tragedy of criminal justice and prisons in America.
In Georgetown’s “Prison Reform Project” GOVX-400 course, 18 students were led by Professor Marc Howard in a groundbreaking project to highlight the stories of 6 returning citizens. Over the course of 4 months, students worked in groups to produce short documentaries profiling each individual’s struggles and triumphs. The ultimate goal of the project is to raise awareness of the challenges of societal reintegration, and the implications for individuals, families, and communities, as well as to inspire others to involve themselves in efforts to end mass incarceration.
