Yes, the situations as described in the book, Inside Life Behind Bars in America are supportive of Santo’s plea to “humanize prisoners”. For instance, as detailed by Santos on page 15, he recalls his account with an individual by the name of Ronald. In particular, Santos describes Ronald’s perspective on the prison system, and how “Ronald says that he did not proceed into the jail with any notion of changing his behavior for the better … Ronald knew that his initial prison term would enhance his status, that it would show he could take the punishment and survive a stint in even the toughest of situations” (Santos 15). From this, Santos presents how Ronald had made no decision to correct his behavior or to turn away from a life of violence…
The book Abina and the Important Men is a graphic history about an African woman named Abina during 1876 in the Gold Coast of West Africa. During the 1700s Asante was a powerful state that had control over gold trade and slave trade around the region. In the 1850s and 1860s the British ran into conflicts with Asante kings because they were not willing to step down and let the British take over. This plays a large importance in the difficulty the courtroom experiences when attempting to rule a slave owner guilty, as the British do not want cause problems with slave owners. Abina was a slave during the time period that was given to Quamina Eddoo for a short period of time.…
The story entitled Prisoner B-3087, Alan Gratz, starts off in Krakow, Poland. The main character Yanek and his family are Jewish and have a great life in their that cozily fit the three members of the family. Then one day everything changed. The nazi’s decieded to make there town that they lived in into a ghetto. Soon, there were three other families that lived with them.…
The book About Prison by Michael G. Santos recounts his personal experience in the criminal justice system of the United States of America. First he explains the background of his situation. He was a normal kid growing up in a good family but he explains how he felt like he could not make a life for himself after high school by working for his father as a contractor (Santos, 2004, p.2). Seeking something more in life, Santos saw an opportunity to start selling cocaine with his high school friend Alex. Santos betrayed his father by taking out a huge amount of money in order to purchase cocaine and lied to his father about the reason for taking out the money.…
When Judee Norton expressed how she felt about reading and writing she stated, “When I read, I was somewhere else. I was no longer the oldest child in the most dysfunctional family in the universe. Writing was magic and I wanted to be a magician, to take people out of what was awful to another place” (Chevigny). Born in Arizona, in 1949, Norton was raised in a poor family with five children. As a child she took on the responsibilities of taking care of her siblings.…
It is very astonishing how the U.S. now incarcerates nearly two million people in its prisons and jails on any given day and over five million of its citizens are currently under some form of justice department supervision. These facts make me ask myself, “If the crime rates are decreasing, then why is the prison population increasing?” However, The Perpetual Prisoner Machine provides the answer to this question and, shockingly, it has little to do with crime or justice. The answer is “profit. ”The Perpetual Prisoner Machine is not simply the prison system and the institutionalized practices which it gives rise to and necessitates, but is also the profit-driven news media, voting and polling practices, and our individual fear of violent crime…
Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling. Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer. New York: The New Press, 2013. 111pp.…
Book Review The book “The Presidency of George Washington” by Forest McDonald mostly concentrates on presidential organizations. It talks about how the presidency of George Washington was one of the most significant events in the history of the United States of America. Also, it discusses social factions, national opinionated politics, war debt, and the regulation of the state and federal governments. McDonald, proclaims that, the office of president may have not existed today if not for Washington.…
The Little Prisoner by Jane Elliott This book was a powerful if not over powering story of a child whose step father abused her on every level of abuse; physical, mental, sexual, and emotional. The author of this book Jane, a pseudonym for the actual child, made the book come full circle. It started in the court room and was brought back to that pivotal moment when she is forced to face her attacker as an adult. It shows the reader the reaction of someone who clearly has no understanding the effects the child abuse Jane endured because the officer treated her like she was overreacting.…
Under Fire: The Story of a Squad was released by Henri Barbusse in December of 1916, still during the heat of World War I. The novel is written based off of Barbusse's own notes that wrote while in the trenches. It is one of the rare books about the war that released during the war and that painted the life of a soldier in such a realistic and brutal manner. The book is an important piece of war literature because it covers not only the intense scenes of fighting, but also the more mundane, but still shocking and tragic daily aspects of being a soldier in the First World War.…
With recent talks on Capitol Hill of an upcoming criminal justice reform, it is not surprising to see topics on sentencing structure, police ethics and practices, and the future of the criminal justice system in the news headlines. One of the biggest topics is the overwhelming prison population in state and federal prisons. This has been a prominent topic for some time now. While some want to curtail the prison community others seem to think there is not a visible complication. Those who sense the prison population or the amount of people under supervision of the criminal justice system is of no concern, more than likely do not understand the impact the population has on criminal justice professionals or where the funding for these institutions…
It was a struggle for the settlers to survive in the first years of the British colony in Australia. They had come from a developed country with buildings, roads, shops and hospitals and arrived in a country that was entirely unfamiliar to them. Not only did they have to contend with strange plants and animals but the soil was also very poor and the climate much warmer and drier. The early settlers were also wary of the Indigenous peoples. The colony almost failed in the early years, as the harvests failed, but gradually the colony began to expand.…
In his personal essay, “Captivity”, Sherman Alexie develops an intriguing view on the complexities of the relationship between Native Americans and European Americans, criticizing Caucasians for hypocrisy and fight for power between the two. His many examples comparing the relations between Whites and Native Americans in his essay, while formidable to producing his argument, are helped significantly by a metaphor presented through the mentioning of Mary Rowlandson, a historical figure who was held captive by Native Americans. Alexie’s argument as to the counter productivity and fear produced as a result of race is brought to light partially through the historical reference to the character Mary Rowlandson, reversing roles where instead of the White person being captive, the Native American is. The introduction of Mary Rowlandson in the piece isn’t until the third section,…
Janeil’s Incarceration Fall of 96 I believe, I think it was sometime in September or October one of the two, Janeil was incarcerated. He had his mother call me on a three way call to tell me what had happened. Supposedly one of his baby mothers had called the police on him. Supposedly one day while he was laying on her living room floor, she walked past him and intentionally stomped his hair and when she tried to take off running, he grabbed her by her hair. She called the police, and filed charges against him.…
In “Why Prisons Don’t Work,” Wilbert Rideau claims state prisons will never improve the lives of criminals and lower crime rates in other states. There are four reasons to consider for dramatic shift to make prisons legitimately functional: 1) Resulting with a “silver bullet” instead of turning a criminal’s life around, 2) Keeping a prisoner long enough can make a man embrace inmate life, 3) Not focusing on the main threat of the young potential criminals, 4) Not giving enough opportunity of giving a convict a second chance at rehabilitation. People who come into a prison may never come out of the rest of his unchanged life. Putting a “silver bullet” through criminals does not keep society safe.…