Prisons are supposed to be used to keep criminals out of the general population. I believe that with the first prisons, that was the goal. That being said, I believe that has been skewed. Today, Anyone who crosses anyone is a criminal. Anyone who is "different" is a criminal. How can we be "the land of the free" when a good portion of our population is living behind bars? There are many, many cases of incarcerated people that should not be locked up, there are many people that the system has let down, there are many people that would benifit from other types of determent. There are, however, cases in which people need to be punished or contained because they are a hazzard to society and it is for this reason that I believe that prisons were first established.
The reasoning behind going to ICIW, I hope, is to grasp a deeper understanding behind the issues leading up to the incarceration of these women. As was mentioned in class, it is easy to see ourselves in the stories of some of the women who are residing at the prison. In society, it is easy to write these women off as being a danger to society or that their stories are so far-fetched that they must be evil or that there is something severely wrong with them. It is my hope that we will be able to put to rest those assumptions that we have coming in. I also believe that this is the purpose for going in and meeting these ladies and learning their stories; an eye-opener.
I think it is important that the women in the prison are able to talk to us, and to share their stories as they see them. I think a lot of times incarcerated people are put into groups according to the crimes that they have commited and never get the chance to talk about the specifics of each individual case. They are commited of their crime according to the way the judge saw their case and it may or may not be understood in the same was as the women who experienced the situation. We will benifit from these women in ways that we may not even know. I am going into this experience with an open mind. My mind has been opened in the last couple of years through learning things about the judicial system that I have never thought about before. Before, I thought everyone in prison was dangerous and a bad person.
I expect nothing more than to just soak up all of the stories and lives of these women. I am excited to be able to get to know women that I never would have gotten a chance to meet in any other situation. I am hoping to gain some understanding of the ideas behind prison life and the people who live those lives. I am not scared about anything included in this experience. I am open minded and open hearted going into this experience. I just hope that I do not bring into the prison any of my old thoughts and stereotypes about incarcerated people.
I like the way that you broaden the definition of the word "criminal" in this entry. I think many of us were taught that criminals are people who commit crimes and do bad things, but our society casts many of its members as criminals not because of their actions but because of their identities. For instance, as Angela Davis pointed out in the lecture we listened to in the car, our society has created the archetype of the criminal young black man, so all young black men are assumed to be criminals. I hope that entering ICIW with open minds and engaging in discussion with the women there will help us dismantle these racialized, classed, and aged stereotypes associated with criminality.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love your blog layout/design!
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think I used to have this sense that incarcerated people were just BAD MEAN EVIL DESPICABLE people. All we see in the media is exploitation of the violent, addicted, and mentally ill people who are locked up. All we see is 'criminal' instead of 'human.'
This might be a stretch, but remember the podcast we listened to? Maybe we are willing to lock up someone else's baby to 'protect' the human race.....but when it comes to locking up 'our' baby, we might have some hesitation. In such a case, we would know there are other alternatives for helping our loved one than prison.
I think our presence at the prison is already a constructive step towards breaking down the prison walls dividing our fellow citizens from the rest of society.