Group Three Links - Prison Reform

 For week three, I am a part of group three covering the topic of Prison Abolition and Reinvention. Today in class we watched the film "Lock up: The prisoners of Rikers Island" which is a documentary that covers the different sections of the infamous New York prison, how they are treated, what they go through, and discusses the help that they truly need instead of being imprisoned. The film shows things no one should have to go through such as your space being violated almost hourly, being punished by correctional officers, incarcerated pregnant women, and the way of being born in prison and dying in prison. One inmate under the name of Jimmy Cooks was born in jail and has come to learn that he will also die in jail. Mr. Cooks was diagnosed with AIDS not soon after being arrested and with little to no medical attention, his days have become numbered. Due to this information, he tries to get an early release due to his medical condition, but that soon becomes denied. With the help of prison reform, there would be a removal of the negative sides of a system built from wrongdoings and change the goal of prisons from punishment to rehabilitation. Another example is two lovely ladies in the pregnant unit, whose names I, unfortunately, have forgotten, who were in jail for using and selling drugs. One of them had her baby in jail and another was released yet was imprisoned not even two months later for using and selling drugs again. If the importance of rehabilitating the inmates and preparing them for their return back into society was set in stone and penitentiaries then they wouldn't be so overpopulated and people would also learn from their old behaviors and make goals and mindful practices to never repeat the same actions. Along with the film, my group and I assigned readings on Ilearn that discuss the importance of health and well-being along with the rehabilitation of inmates. The reading I enjoyed most is the "Rehabilitate or Punish?" article by the American Psychological Association which mixes the topic of psychology and prisoners as their mental health brings concerns to debate the nature of the prison. My group and I will also be doing our presentation on Thursday which will further discuss the topic at hand and even bring a few ways to call to action on how prisoners are treated.  Making a change to the way Prisons do things will not be easy as they have been set in stone under u.s policing since slave patrols which were first made in the Carolinas in the early 1700s to establish terror and return runaway slaves. The movement of prison reform and maybe even the possibility of abolition is not just something I'm curious about, but also passionate about as the time that is being taken away from people's life when jailed is something one can't earn back. Thus, it's best to make further changes for society if when imprisoned you benefited from it instead of being broken down even more from the system that built the current environment that is bringing inmates to jail. I really enjoyed working on this and am looking forward to discussing it more on our Thursday presentation and hope people can learn something new and spread the word about prison reform and abolition.