Minding your own business

Thank you everyone for such a great conversation yesterday! We touched on so many different topics, all of which led to an incredibly stimulating conversation. One question that struck me was the question of moral responsibility. In class, Elizabeth mentioned the moral responsibility a neighbor might have to a DV victim. While I was drafting this blog, I kept coming back to the issue of responsibility we have toward each other. Yesterday morning I ended up in a discussion with my mentor, Jan, about moral responsibility and how individuals react to certain situations. We argued about how different circumstances cause different reactions, and while people are more than willing to help, certain situations will cause them to freeze and hesitate.

A few years ago, a woman was sexually assaulted in a train station while two different conductors looked on. While the conductors did call for help, they did nothing to physically stop the man. By the time the cops reached her, the woman had been raped twice and the man was long gone. The victim filed a lawsuit against the conductors and recently, a judge ruled that the conductors were in no way responsible to step in and help the woman, as long as they called for help. MTA stated that the conductors should not be expected to take the place of law enforcement. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/04012009/news/regionalnews/subway_rapist_victims_shock_162317.htm)

Another one of my CEO co-workers showed me a video of a woman who was beat up on the train by a random stranger in Spain, while other passengers looked on and did nothing. Incidents like these happen everywhere and it is always the onlooker’s moral responsibility that is questioned. My mentor’s statement that everyone claims they will help someone but very few are willing to act in the moment has truth to it. A lot of people might not get involved simply because it wasn’t their business. I myself might think twice about helping the woman on the train, for the fear of him turning on me would stop me. Should it be each person’s moral responsibility to look out for the safety of others? If so, is it possible to create a moral code of conduct? Is it possible to enforce such a code? 

Machinery of Justice

I was introduced to Camus in an ISP Philosophy class a few semesters ago. I decided to read The Stranger independently of school over the summer and it has maintained a special meaning for me. This could be because Camus’ writing is compelling and the story is brilliantly woven with substance and meaning. Or perhaps it is because within weeks of reading it I served on jury duty on a criminal case and could compare very clearly the fictional irrationality of law with the American Justice system in the real world. It also seems that I have been somewhat unable to escape many of the sentiments in this book over the past year.

I was recently, inadvertently, introduced to a band called Titus Andronicus. I saw them play at the Bowery Ballroom in February 2009, and though they are an indie/punkish band a genre of music which lends itself to energetic performances, theirs was one of the most emotionally charged, exciting and good I’ve ever seen. After poking around on the internet to learn more about them and listen to some more of their music, I learned that the Titus Andronicus is also one of Shakespeare’s earliest and bloodiest tragedies. At the end of the bands' song " Fear and Loathing," Titus Andronicus lead singer reads a monologue from a the play. The quote is by Aaron ( who is interestingly a Moor!) and it describes all the horrible deeds he has done in an a tone of such defiance that it gave me chills at how similar it felt to the last paragraphs of The Stranger.

I had two reactions to this. First of all how can people who are supposed to be indifferent commit such passionate acts to demonstrate or prove their indifference? ( Not only murder but the bands screaming) Second, is this simply a part of humanity? If everyone from Shakespeare to Camus to college kids from Jersey are feeling it .. maybe it’s just something we exist with.
Camus mentions the “machinery of justice”. Justice –such an abstract word- is most familiar to us in the realm of the criminal jus tice system. But this function of justice( the CJS) only exists within our conceptions of things like society, morals, and rights. Camus, Shakespeare and Titus Andronicus all seem to be expressing some defiance of a system that they deem to be meaningless, and by inference unjust.

As workers in the criminal justice and humanities fields we will be exposed to “the benign indifference of the universe” as Camus puts it. And we will be part of a system of justice that doesn’t feel very just at all. How much do you agree or disagree with Camus’ notion of the “machinery of justice” and in what ways do you think we can prevent ourselves from being overcome by it?

Is it the place or is it the people?

This past Thursday we got to the unanimous conclusion that violence should not be a part of our prison system and that it can be prevented. At this point, I would like to shift the focus on a different aspect. Probably, all of you heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment. As a quick overview, Philip Zimbardo a Psychology Professor at Stanford University created a mock prison. All the participants in the study were college students who volunteered to be part of the project. The students chosen to be prisoners went through the whole process of being arrested, booked, fingerprinted, placed and held in a cell. Their hair was shaved and each prisoner was forced to wear a heavy chain bolted to their right ankle. The guards were also college students who did not receive special training, but were advised to maintain the law and order in prison. The experiment was stopped after only 6 days because the “guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.” So my question is: Is it the setting that makes people violent, or people in a position of authority become violent?
Going back to our last week discussion about language, do you think that if we change the name of this institution and the people associated with it, we are taking away their authority? What would be the options of a new guard who doesn’t want to abuse his/her authority, if the other guards pressure him to go against his/her beliefs? Do you believe that more women correction officers may help reduce violence? Are prisoners more likely or less likely to comply with orders received from women correctional officers? Do you think that violence can be reduced and prisoners better rehabilitated if we create a more liberal prison model, such as prisons without cells and no tick walls (just some fences)? Is it even realistic to aim for a violence free prison system when we live in a violent world (the yesterday Binghampton shooting is just one example)?
Please feel free to take this in any direction you would like or to express your ideas and/or concerns on the topic.

Reflections on reentry, language, and ritual

Another Thursday, another morning full of thought-provoking conversation. As much as I'm yearning for break -- my thoughts are overly-provoked! -- I can only say that we are on a roll, people!
First, a shout-out to President Travis, who was so generous with his time, expertise and responses to your excellent questions (second shout-out). I'd like for the blog this week to be a space for you to reflect on yesterday's discussion or to continue last week's blog discussion, or even to make connections between things said yesterday and things said last week.
What I've been thinking about since yesterday, and this may be an occupational hazard, is how much language and ritual are part of the re-entry (and indeed broader criminal justice) conversation. From calling an ex-con (what we called them in my day) a "formerly incarcerated citizen" to graduation ceremonies from parole, the "softer" or more "meta" or extra-legal (? now all my language choices seem subject to critique) concerns in the criminal justice process seem to be central ones. But I am someone who pays professional attention to symbol, language, and ritual. What are you all noticing "on the ground" in your internships? Do people pay careful attention to language? Is the importance of symbolic gestures something you see factored into the decisions your agency makes?
Feel free to take this in a different direction. What struck you about our conversation with President Travis yesterday? What questions would you have wanted to ask in a second hour? I know I would have asked him about the choice to put an anti-apartheid anthem as the epigraph to his book. What connections does he want the reader to make between America's prison system and apartheid in South Africa?

Visiting the Mother Ship

Hello Verons,

I think we all were pretty impressed by our trip this morning to Vera. But what else were we? Since we don't have an official blog post-er this week, I thought I'd start a conversation about the many different ideas that were running through your head this morning (other than, can I actually take a second doughnut -- o.k. that was me). Did anything you learn help you figure anything out? Did it make you more confused? Are your internships this semester more the former or the latter? Any questions that you did not get to ask there that you would have wanted to?

As I said this morning, I was really struck by what a key skill flexibility is -- intellectually, personally, professionally -- and I wonder if you feel that you see that in your spinoff organization? Do you think that the things you are studying/doing are helping you develop that skill? And, in a nod to Professor Waterston, what kinds of larger conditions are necessary for people/organizations to be able to be flexible?

On a separate note, I will bring a thank-you card to seminar next week for everyone to sign, but feel free to shoot Tina an informal thank you at tchiu@vera.org.

Blog on!

...and the Jury says?

Thanks Fellows for such a great discussion yesterday.

Southchester, like many counties across the state (and across the country), is unequipped to deal with the number of individuals they have incarcerated. But the problem doesn't go away.

As we mentioned in class, go ahead and weigh in with a verdict: what should Southchester do? You can be yourself, but I'd like you to consider whether your opinion would change if you lived in Southchester, had a family, were elderly, were unemployed...
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I have so much that I wanted to bring up in class, but there is so little time! (okay, fine, and I was a little nervous). A couple things I will throw out right now are:

- Consider what makes a jail different from a prison- very high inmate turnover, individuals awaiting trial (who are still "innocent" in the eyes of the law???), often more poorly funded, mostly members from that community...

- Who is housed in a local jail? In Dutchess, roughly 1 in 4 were diagnosed with a mental illness, and between 60-70% are non-violent drug offenders (or charged with a non-violent drug offense).

- Tim Joseph, a legislator for Tompkins County, spoke about how state officials use statistics inappropriately to bully county governments into costly expansions. He said, "They get a graph, they look at what it's done in the past twenty years, and they draw a line through it. They go out twenty more years, and they say that's what [the population] is going to be. Now if we project that to continue and continue, well, there won't be anyone left to guard us all."

As learnéd outsiders, the situation might seem silly. (It seems silly to me) But even if we introduce alternative programs, who would run them? How do we leverage political support? What happens if these programs do not achieve the results they are expected to? Will the community support these "soft" solutions? Can Southchester afford the risk?

Octavia raised an important selling point for private (and public) expansions- beds can be sold out to generate revenue for the town. Jobs will be created. Darakshan raised a good point too- no unions may mean we can employ more Southchester-ians struggling in this economy. While philosophically we may not support a private jail, can we sleep at night if we don't invest in a solution that gives our community the most jobs with benefits, saves our town money (potentially) and, perhaps, even generates income that can be reinvested into the community?


P.S. If you want- take a break from all your work and watch this short, totally unrelated youtube clip. I had this in my syllabus also- it is BRILLIANT in its marketing strategy... and I PROMISE you won't regret it. Weigh in on it too if you'd like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POFO0HGrpVE

Searching For A Remedy

America is a country like no other, where people come to find refuge from their own war torn or corrupt countries; countries that have been destroyed due to religious conflicts and other divisiveness. It is where dreams are made on just a dollar and where stars are born and legends are made. America offers an abundance of opportunities, and although it is not perfect, it has great potential. Yet with such auspices, America remains a glass ceiling for opportunities for many hard working people. Language, religion and culture are a few factors that have been cited to cause enormous division among people in America, making it difficult to arrive any one consensus.

Clearly no one as of yet at least, knows the answer to what makes a near perfect society or at least one that functions to equally benefit everyone. Many believe that diversity should be valued and maintain because it encourages innovation and cultural richness. Yet it is this diversity that highlights how different we are--- potentially driving us further apart from each other. Others believe that identifying with one culture encourages unity, solidarity and cooperation, though having one culture can be viewed as limited.

How do we truly see past the differences among us in order to advocate for each others interest and work in concert in achieving those interests? How important is it to get over who is what? Can there be one shared culture? Or are we just too torn to see our selves as one? And with the fast emerging bi-racial population, do they eventually create their own culture since they do not belong to just one?

Myself, I do not have a definitive answer for many of these questions. And as a mother of a bi-racial child I am sorting it all out. For now however, I am choosing to raise my daughter as an American, not part Irish or part Jamaican.