Criminal Justice System By John Brown: Chapter Analysis

1. In this chapter, Brown discusses the disconnect between the physical realities of prison, such as the social costs felt by the inmate, their families, and the communities and the disproportionate imprisonment of minority populations, and the beliefs—influenced by cultural, social, and political forces—that ordinary Americans have regarding the criminal justice system. According to Brown, it is important as a penal spectator who is removed from the experiences of the criminal justice system to fully analyze the use of violence in punishment because it is normalized and there is a popular belief that inmates simply deserve the punishment. This book focuses on identifying the relationship between punishment and the common conceptions that penal
spectators have, which are greatly influenced by everyday life and cultural phenomena, its consequences, and the development of different ways of thinking about punishment.
2. The concept that I am having the most difficult time understanding is Brown’s view of the penal spectator because it seems that Brown believes that penal spectators are too far removed from punishment to be able to properly engage in penal issues. At the same time, it seems that Brown stresses the importance of penal spectators to develop new ways of thinking as the title of the chapter is “Notes on Becoming a Penal Spectator.” Thus, I am confused on Brown’s actual opinion of penal spectators.