This course is designed to give students a critical overview of penology. It will provide students with a theoretical understanding of punishment as well as contextualize shifts in contemporary punishment. The course is divided into four units. The first unit we will look at the 'old penology' and examine the origins of the prison in Canada. The second unit will explore the 'new penology' and emergent lenses for studying punishment such as risk, neo-liberalism, and colonialism. In the third unit, we will look 'within' prisons to explore experiences in the current penal landscape. In the final unit, we will look to other empirical sites and think about punishment beyond the prison such as in immigrant detention centres, school punishment, and/or penal abolition movements.