Ctl: A Short Story

I will have an internship with the Department of Juvenile Justice in Chicago during this summer, so this book provided examples of how to approach the prison environment. The case histories which impacted me, mainly was the Case Histories I, which illustrated Mrs. Chase and her interactions with the inmates. I feel this case influenced me because I am also female with no experience, who is about to work in a juvenile facility. I will face some of the same obstacles as Mrs. Chase since some of the juveniles are not far from my ages. However, this book taught me ways to hinder the interaction with inmates into a professional only demeanor. For instance, when approaching me, I will make it clear that I will only be addressed by my last name, and will not respond anything other than my last name. Additionally, I will not disclose any personal information to the inmates; however, I will provide information if it’s appropriate for the situation. Moreover, I want to build a relationship with the inmates to show that I am here to help them, better themselves, but not for personal reasons, such as intimate relationships or outside

This week’s reading focused on prisons. The Society of Captives was written by Gresham M. Sykes in 1958. He conducted a study on a maximum security prison in New Jersey. Chapter 1 focused on the prison and its settings. The author goes into detail about the size of the cells and what the prison actually looks like. He also writes about how the prisoner is no longer seen as man but as a number. My Sunday school teacher visits prisons to teach about the bible. He has commented to me that is exactly how certain correction officers see the prisoners. They are nothing but a number to some individuals. This can lower their self-image (Sykes, 1958).

Prior to visiting the prison, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was nervous but also excited to see how everything operated. I had never been to a jail or a prison prior to this field trip. I was expecting to see one big building surrounded by high fences and coiled barbed wire. Once inside, I was expecting to see people dressed in orange doing various activities, much like in movies and television shows, even though I knew these weren’t true.

In our facility, help groups will be established with the prisoners. Our duty is to try to rehabilitate the prisoners in the system if they want to be rehabilitated. We will have a group of prisoners in a guarded room in the facility, with counselors who can speak to them in a group. The prisoners at some point may be able to help one another understand what their issues have been in the past that helped to lead them to the situation that caused them to be sentenced to this facility. Our goal as a helping group for the inmate is to get them to understand if they are ever eligible for parole what they can do in life to avoid the situation that put them in prison in the first place or ways to think quickly to a less dangerous situation where they will be able to make a better choice in life.

Just as Conover explains and reveals, it takes years to become a professional in the field. Reading Conover’s text, gives a lot of important information and was something unique that I haven't read before. Before reading New Jack, I didn't imagine that working in a prisons could be so difficult. Hearing the information from someone that has experienced prisons in the United States and the ways facilities, corrections officers, and inmates function with one another, has helped me get a better

Can words change person’s thoughts from desperation, violence, to peace and normality within a dehumanizing prison? Some prisoners spending short to long term sentenced, sometimes lose themselves in a world of violence and become worse off when coming into the prison system, than how they used to be before prison life. Trying to hold on to any bit of sanity or respect for humanity becomes an everyday struggle. Sometimes the smallest thing can help prevent the feeling, of going over that edge of no return from a dreadfulness act of death.

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

What the researchers found during this study was that both the behaviors and mentalities of guards and prisoners changed. Guards became more aggressive and prisoners became passive. A group of five prisoners had to actually be released from the study because of physical and emotional changes they were experiencing. Those prisoners remaining actually began acting as if they were truly incarcerated. By the behaviors they exhibited they had all but forgotten that they were free to leave at any time and not forfeit the money they had already earned. Guards, on the other hand, actually stayed at the prison longer than they were scheduled and were actually disappointed when the study came to a close while prisoners were very happy and expressed their luck at getting released early. These results clearly demonstrate that it is the environment that contributes to the behaviors observed. Those who were given the role of guard expressed the power and control they had over the prisoners. The prisoners began to become hopeless and bend to the power of the guards.

I am the director and danger administrator for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice jail frameworks. I needed to converse with you about the issues concerning ex-cons and detainees. Our jail frameworks are not giving detainees a chance to enhance themselves. I have looked into the issues concerning our jail frameworks, which are absence of instruction, legitimate preparing, expanded populace, living conditions, and emotional wellness sicknesses. There is an expanding pattern with these issues.

When we were told that we would be going into Muscogee County Jail to interview inmates, I had many mixed emotions: anxious, excited, curiosity. When registering for this class, I was not told what I would be doing while taking this course so being told we were going in the jail was pretty shocking and surprising. I remember sitting there and thinking how am I, someone who is not even a criminal justice major (I am a sociology major), suppose to have a conversation with an inmate about what is going on within the system not knowing anything about the system. The feeling of inadequacy was real and led to a state of confusion and thinking I couldn't relate to these inmates or do the job I was sent in there to do.

At any given time, a single corrections officer, can expect to be outnumbered by upwards of 400 inmates (Conover, 2011). It can be chilling to work in the midst of hundreds of inmates, some of which initiate attacks and inappropriate relationships. However, other issues have impacted the psychological health and physical safety of the staff. Detrimental factors have included heavy workloads, the prisons physical structure, and a lack of support from both peers and superiors. Each workplace issue has been in addition to role problems, specifically role ambiguity and role conflict (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). It is believed that anyone of these undesirable facets of prison should be enough to deter the public from attempting to enter such

Sometimes you walk through a door, unsure what is waiting on the other side. You have to believe all will work out somehow. As I left correctional health after 28 years, I was lost. Still too young to retire, I didn’t know in which direction to go. A week before my last day, I saw Christine, a social worker who had a case load of Hepatitis C inmates at the jail. I was always fascinated with her no nonsense style, which at times bordered on the crude. She worked for Body Positive, an HIV/AIDS non-profit agency. I liked her spunk and the freedom she had to be herself.

He came back to the facility and asked me to explain what it was. I began to try to explain that it was a phone. He asked "where are the buttons, how can you dial someone without buttons." I replied "the buttons are on the inside." His reply changed my view on ex offenders, he said "WOW, THAT'S CREEPY... EVERYTHING IS SO STRANGE OUT THERE". Something as simple as a cellar device was weird to him. It was almost as if he was entering a foreign land instead of returning home. Home was no longer home, everything and everyone had changed. To the offender, it’s as if life has moved on, but you were stuck in time, thinking from that perspective, how can we expect someone to be a key player in today's society when, they have been placed on pause for years. The sad reality is often times they cannot function adequately in today's society and are often times susceptible to becoming a repeat

When we do research on daily prison life, we come across two typical but less than ideal situations: either social imaginaries cloud our judgment or information provided by the prisons themselves hide certain weak or bad aspects that they do not want to make public. We can also find information on TV, but most of the time it either exaggerates or minimizes the facts. In order to obtain more reliable information, we have to have access to people who are working or have worked in this institution, and such will be the sources of this essay. We will be describing and giving examples of prison violence according to three types of violence: sexual, physical and psychological violence.

Once you enter a prison, you are in a completely different world. The sound of the door as it closes drives the realization home: your freedom is gone. Whatever luxuries you had before are gone. Everything you once took for granted you now long for, and contemplate with reverence. This being the case, there are now two new sets of rules you have to follow: the rules of the staff, and the rules of the inmates. Of course, these will conflict, but you have to deal with it now. Prison subculture is different from the outside world and even varies between men’s and women’s. The men’s subculture is probably the better known of the two. It has its own set of ebonics, attitudes, statuses, and values. Inmates say that