The Prison System (Blog #10)

This week, we had a guest speaker talk to us about the Prison system, her vast knowledge coming from the experiences with her son, Jacob. The prison system for individuals 18 and up starts at the Austin Police Department and after central booking downtown, individuals are temporarily placed at county jail where the legal process begins. From there, there were four options: being released, getting on probation, going to state jail, or going to state prison. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice allows the individual to be released or be put on parole (after doing some time). Nevertheless, her knowledge of the prison system was admiring, and allowed me to gain perspective on some of its issues. Her son, Jacob, has been in and out of prison countless times. She was open about her son’s meth addiction, and brought some pictures to our class, explaining his personality and charisma. This was important because it allowed me to view a personal case in a macro level issue. Today, a big factor for criminal charges is substance abuse. This is hard to hear because individuals with problems of substance abuse can be held to the same standards as those committing murder. Other big factors for criminal charges are overcrowding, disproportionate of minorities, and mental health. To me, this addresses stereotyping, discrimination, and lack of intervention in our prison system. It is extremely expensive to keep a person in prison, however, public consent on providing services or help is almost impossible. The general population believes that prisoners “deserve” to be punished. The media does a great job of portraying criminals in the worst possible light, yet it’s important to understand that about 70% of the inmates are in for substance abuse. This shows the influence that media has and it shows how little the public  knows. Our guest speaker then questioned, so in times when there is no public support, what can we do as social workers in the community? For one, I believe there needs to be more awareness. Partnering with advocacy organizations would be beneficial in educating the public about the prison system today. We also need to work within the system, and provide services with outreach groups (such as Safe place). However, I find it hard to believe that the prison system will change anytime soon. We take things one step at a time, but with each step, thousands of prisoners are treated with injustice.  

Observation: I heard a guy say, “I hate when girls have powerful voices, it’s annoying.”