Invitation from Sheila Pinkel

        I find it interesting when I get to look at most questions from a foreigner's perspective as for the most part my immediate answer would be "I don't know". But after the discussion, with the little help of Google and taking from my own one-semester-long experience working with incarcerated women, I generated some thoughts.

        As I write this post, I am reminded of the discussion I had with Han this afternoon about how I feel silenced when I speak English and how silence involves both voluntarily silent people and people being silenced. I am one of those people who enjoys silence to the extreme but being silenced is a very difference experience. I feel like some of my words are being silenced when I transform them from Chinese to English, and then part of my meanings are silenced when my words are heard by other people. Through this double-silencing transportation of my words, I am consistently silenced. But when I am alone, when I have my free silence time, I talk to myself in English as if it is the only language I know in the universe. I don't feel silenced anymore.

        Then I start to think about the second question, and about people who share the similar Asian identity as me. I have been thinking how Asians are ignored in American society as if we do not exist. We are usually collectively included into "people of color" while the conversations over races rarely bring us up. As I went through my memory about working with incarcerated women, I could not think of any Asian woman I had encountered in the facility. I found it extremely interesting but sad that Asians are the victims of instituionalized racism as we could not reach our goals as easily as most white people do; however, we seem to be less discriminated against than black people do in issues related to incarceration, and then we sort of lose our voices in the conversations over incarceration, privilege, races or even social justice. I could find where myself or my race could fill into the conversation as we are not the privileged ones nor the "not" privileged ones.

        As I start to find the reasons for why Asians are neglected, I think about the conversation I had with Han. We talked a lot about the differences between American and Chinese incarceration system, or even political structures. And somehow an incarcerated individual seems more approachable(?) or common in America than in China because of the massive incarceration. Then because of the massive incarceration, American families (I assume, because I really know nothing) seem to have less shame in incarcerated members than Chinese families do. Instead, through my conversation with incarcerated women, I have heard how their families were being supportive and how they still kept close relationship with their family members. However, I also thought about the immobility of American social class that most people will become the same socio-economic class as their parents. And I wonder if massive incarceration has anything to do with it.

      And speaking of my questions, I actually have the exactly questions like what can we do to provide released people with a more productive life and how do we accomplish a more just society (clearly that's why I am not able to answer it). Being a foreigner, I really could not find to stand point to speak to these questions because this is not the society I identify with that I don't even know where to start to "solve" this questions. And often, when I think about these questions, I found myself in a dilemma between having a safer world vs. having a more just world, and I honestly do not know where to put myself.

Written with Shirah Kraus

We just sat down and went through very directly and tried to think about each question individually. This is what ended up emerging in our notes.

1. What is your technical expertise? Are you good at photography? Do you know how to use Photoshop or InDesign? Have you done a digital book, digital printing, or made a website?
   
   Shirah: CAN PRESS CAMERA BUTTONS! Can pose like a tacky tourist or a professional photographer with a camera- very convincing. Willing to figure other things out!
   Julia: I know how to use Photoshop! I know a fair amount about perspective and composition as far as photography goes, but that’s about it.
   
   
2. What is the difference between silence and silenced? Reflect on your experiences of silence and being silenced.
   
   I think this goes back to our in-class discussion, at the first English meeting, about whether silence can be enjoyable when it has been chosen for us. Choosing it inherently makes it something you’re doing for yourself. Part of being silenced is the level of consent and the power dynamics involved; it is something you feel out for each individual situation. 
   
   
3. Who is incarcerated in the United States? Pennsylvania? Socio-economic and cultural information about incarcerated people, including adults, youth, sexual orientation of incarcerated.
   
   A disproportionate number of people of color are incarcerated; the recidivism rate is disgustingly high (over 60%). We also aren’t totally sure of all the answers, to be totally honest. The incarceration rate, we think, is definitely incredibly high. The war on drugs, and the american policy of incarcerating for minimal crimes, are both directly tied to this. We jail more people per hundred thousand than any other developed in the world. We know that these same people are all being taken out of the voting populace and losing rights as citizens in the US. 
   
   
4. Who benefits financially from the growth of public and private prisons? What is the financial magnitude of this industry? 
   
   The government, as well as many privately owned businesses, directly benefit financially from prisons (PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX). Part of the reason that the recidivism rate is so high is that very little is done to rehabilitate within prisons; they are free labor and more money while incarcerated. Prisoners can be indentured servants; they are treated like slaves with very little consequences for those in charge of the prison. There is a different set of standards used in conceptualizing prisoners than there is of those not incarcerated. They are seen as inferior or less human, or less deserving of respect and humane treatment. 
   
   
5. How is prison labor being used today, by whom, for whose benefit? 
   
   Prison labor is treated basically as free labor- though they do get paid a very minuscule amount, so they are not technically slaves.  We aren’t sure of exactly who is benefitting or putting them to work, or what the work is. We talk about the Prison Industrial Complex, but we don’t know specifically what groups are involved.
   
   
6. How does incarceration affect families of the incarcerated? 
   
   Incarceration is a really deep divide between prisoners and their families. It makes it impossible to keep up with the daily lives of their loved ones and maintain healthy relationships. It’s also really difficult for the children of incarcerated parents; there’s a lot of stigma around being the child of a criminal. 
   
   
7. What does society need to provide so that people released from prison can have productive lives? How can individuals and groups be proactive in accomplishing a more just society?
   
   We definitely need better integration for people leaving prisons- more one on one attention and care for their move into society. It would also be helpful for there to be fewer legal barriers upon reintegration, especially around stigmas. We need to make people more willing to believe that others can change and become better. We need to recognize that ex-prisoners and prisoners are just as much human as we are.  Society definitely bears some responsibility for those who commit crimes- we need to own up to that and help them more upon their release. People in prison are part of the societal system that failed them- do we really want to keep repeating that?

This morning, Abby and I got together on the back porch of Batten House to talk about these questions. 

It ended up turning into something of a listening conversation, and we touched on more personal things than we'd like to share in this comment. But, for the sake of the assignment, here are the main points of what we touched on in terms of focus areas that we'd like to research for our respective presentations:

Sula:

I’m thinking about the time at the beginning of the summer when my friend called me from a holding cell at the police station, asking me to come and bail her out. I spent four hours waiting for the bail commissioner to call so they could process and release her, not knowing what she had done or what had happened. I remember laughing when she told me the story—none of it was her fault, it was a simple matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. With $40 in bail money, wealthy parents to provide a good lawyer, and the paying off of a parole officer for the six months to come, she was set. The justice system had taken care of her, an upper class, white girl. 

I’m thinking about how, when I told my parents about my trip to the police station to post bail, my mother told me about picking my brother up from a station in Boston—he had been arrested for smoking marijuana at a Red Sox game. She laughed telling the story: “It was just annoying to get up in the middle of the night, and you were just a baby.” I didn’t know what legal actions were taken afterward—it seemed unnecessary to ask. He was a middle-class white man; why should there have been a problem?

What about the families who don’t have this privilege, even if they know their loved ones did nothing truly wrong? What is that experience of fear, of just not knowing, of sitting in the waiting room in the police station for hours knowing that whatever happens, this isn’t going to turn into a “funny story” to share with friends? 

Abby:

Reading the website on solitary confinement as torture and also the Performing Statistics project where trauma care specialists were involved in the process, I think about how the experience of incarceration is traumatic to the individuals and families who endure it. The whole Purpose of prison systems is a kind of reformatory, right? meant to take “Criminals” to churn them into “Productive Members of Society” who have repented for all the harm that they’ve caused others. (Whatever those terms even mean…) But I wonder — does it do more harm than good to a person who experiences this intense kind of trauma? What are the emotional, mental, physical, and psychological effects of being incarcerated? And why do we never talk about what life is really like after prison? The label “criminal” strips people of their humanity and I think that contributes to why the general public doesn’t know or care about what life is like during and after being in prison. That dehumanization disallows individuals to feel/express sadness, vulnerability, pain, anger… And that is just one aspect of the violence that people go through being imprisoned. 

Also, in terms of our technical savviness: we don't have any (at least beyond MacBook operating capabilities). 

Looking at the links to Pete Brook’s work I found his VICE interview really interesting. When asked what he considers to be the biggest issue today in America’s prison industrial complex he said, “Above all else, let us admit together that prisons have not done and do not do what they claim to do. Prisons do not make us any safer. Prisons, for the most part do not rehabilitate or educate or train prisoners to a degree that we should expect.” This got me thinking about the philosophy behind prisons. I’m sure we will touch more on this in Joel’s class, but it seems to be that all over America there are separate ideas of what a prison should do. Are they there to protect civilians from those who have committed crimes? Are they designed to punish those we deem criminals? Are they there to help an inmate reflect and grow so as to refrain from crime? Are they there to make money off of the disenfranchised? We saw a bit of this when reading out the different systems of prisons; the Auburn System which was severe and the Pennsylvania System that was influenced by Quaker ideas. So from the start of prisons in America no one has been on the same page.  

On a technical note I am not familiar with any digital ways of making art, though, not unwilling to experiment. I did bring lots of crafting supplies like paints, markers, crayons and the like for some old fashioned art making.

The idea of who benefits financially from prisons is an idea I’ve encountered before in a previous class about bureaucracy. Prisons are massive bureaucracies whether federally, state, or privately owned. In the class we focused on the privatization of prisons as part of the larger question of if privatization works for the American government. One of the most astounding things I read about what that in private prison contracts they specify that there is a bed minimum, meaning that every night if they want to keep the prison running there needs to be at least a specific amount of inmates. That seems to go against any just philosophies of prisons.  

On another note I was prompted to do some research on philosophical works about prisons. I found this link to be a good jumping off point for further research. http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763729043/Chapter_01.pdf

The demographic make up of the US prison system is not at all representative of the United States as a whole. Firstly, people of color are a huge portion of the incarcerated population. Currently, one in fifteen black males is in prison whereas one in 106 white males is in prison.  This racial incarceration difference is not an effect of differing crime rates among races, but an effect of the blatant racial biases that many of those within the justice system hold. The War on Drugs and Stop and Frisk are both examples of programs and policies targeted specifically towards the punishment and incarceration of people of color.  Any tall black man wearing a sweatshirt may “fit the profile” of someone who has committed a crime and likely end up in jail. Although white and black teenagers have comparable levels of marijuana usage, the number of black teenagers selected for “random drug testing” in high schools is substantially higher.

In addition to the racial disparity in jails and prisons, another large part of the population is affected by psychotic disorders and mental illness. After the deinstitutionalization of asylums in the second half of the past century, people who may have benefitted from such places are now often ending up in the system of incarceration.  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 15% of  state inmates are diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, and 50% of all inmates have a mental illness or substance abuse problem.  These numbers are very high, especially when taking the lack of proper diagnoses for many inmates into account.

Women in the criminal justice system is the fastest growing population.  Many are mothers and the primary care givers for their children. All inmates are dehumanized to an extent, but women experience this dehumanization much more than men do.  They are often not provided with adequate health and hygiene care. Additionally, the majority of incarcerated women were victims of violence prior to their incarceration, and in 2004, allegations of staff sexual misconduct were made in all but one state prison in the United States. 

People of color, women and those with mental illnesses represent only a few sections of the growing population in jails and prisons. However, they make up a significant portion of the demographics within the system. I hope to learn more about other marginalized populations in prisons such as queer people and youth in adult institutions throughout the coming semester. 

Collaborated with Farida Ilboudo and Sylvia Merantus

Joie and I met up at the campus center to talk about these prompts. The conversation pretty much just started flowing when we looked at the links and questions.

Joie: About the technical questions - I've done none of those things. (No photography, InDesign, etc) but I'd definitely be willing to learn!

Meera: I've got some experience with InDesign, but rudimentary. I enjoy photography but don't know much about the technicalities of it. Finally, I know how to make a website through WordPress. But I'd also be willing to learn!

Both of us were interested in the same two questions: 1) Who benefits financially from the growth of public and private prisons? What is the financial magnitude of this industry? and 2) How does incarceration affect families of the incarcerated? Because one looks at the way the prison industrial complex affects society on a larger scale while the other focuses in on repercussions for individuals. 

Meera:

We looked at some of the photos accompanying the New York Times article on Pete Brook, and it was painful. We were especially interested in the photograph of the correctional officer comforting the inmate during a psychotic episode. There was so much intriguing about that - you see the anguished face of the incarcerated man and the disembodied, gloved, ghost-like hand of the correctional officer reaching out in an act of so-called "comfort". When we think about the way that families are affected, we mainly imagine them losing a loved one as well as a care provider to the prison system, but what if the family was the caretaker? I cannot fathom the concept of having a mentally ill family member who was used to being taken care of by a loving family be transplanted into solitary confinement. The gloved hand looked like it gave no comfort at all; it was medical and robotic, not even allowing the incarcerated man the privilege of skin-to-skin contact. It magnifies the dehumanization of prison life, the vulnerability and pain of it. This connects so much to what Abby was saying in an earlier comment in this thread: that no one seems to care about the emotional, mental, physical, and psychological toll that prison can take. It is a closed community, where only those with the proper tools, like gloves and a sense of dissociation and numbness, can truly venure. 

Another photograph, meanwhile, was almost comforting to look at. Focusing on a different facet of prison life, it features several women crowded around bunk beds, looking deep in conversation with one another. They are communicating, socializing, though they are not exactly laughing. The women had sparsely decorated their surroundings, trying to brighten it up as much as they can. The scene, of women looking in deep intellectual thought, actually brought social conversations at Bryn Mawr, and a general women's college community to mind. That made me think about the connections between colleges and prison. One of our readings for Inst'l Spaces discussed the building of college dorms, and one of the dorms was to be build with a dean or cartaker in the center, surrounded by dorms that would have glass windows so the dean would be able to see them at all time. It was modeled very similarly to Eastern State Penitentiary, where there was a warden in the center. There is a shame in being seen all of the time, both a physical and mental shame in not having a space for alone time and thought. This shame is what prison culture grows like a festering wound. Living in a community like a dorm room still contains its own closed spaces, but the feeling of being seen, of being opened up in a small community like this, connects it to prison life in certain (small) contexts. To clarify, I am not trying to equate my experiences to that of a women's prison at all, but I just want to draw connections where I can see them. 

Joie:

Who is incarcerated in the United States? Those at the bottom of the power structure. Those who have no defenses because the system they have been thrust into has been working against them since day one. People of color, particularly black people, women and men who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, children and adolescents who often have prison behind one door and death, starvation, poverty, homelessness, behind the other.  It is the unwanted. The great unwanted and if your skin is too dark, your accent too thick, your face too un-child like, stuck in a system designed to crush, the only place for you is where no one can see you. Where no one needs to think about you or your life, or your experiences or your humanity. It’s the humanity that gets erased, because it is easy. Because what is undesirable, what is ugly, what is too hard to look at is far more easily swept aside than regarded. Than acknowledged. Than humanized.

The women I speak to on the abortion access hotline often disclose that their husband, their brother, their boyfriend, the father of their child, their friend, their father, their son, their uncle, their cousin and on and on and on, is incarcerated. That is the word that is most often used. “He is incarcerated.” As if it somehow, it is a humanizing, even dignifying phrase. Others say, “locked up. He is locked up.” I have never once spoken to someone who has said, “He is in prison, or he is in jail.” It is just not said. Because then truly, what humanity does that leave them? Being incarcerated, being locked up, these are things that happen to people. But when he is in prison, or he is in jail, he is just one of the many masses who are transplanted into that place, for some thing they did against the great American Society, for being who they are, in the circumstances they are in. And they are no longer an individual. They are a number. One of millions. And the most common repercussion their incarceration has on their families, the women that I speak to, is the destruction of an economically viable family. The people who call are often single mothers, who no longer receive child support because he is locked up, or who cannot pay the $300 it costs for an abortion because he is incarcerated but they also cannot possibly go through with their pregnancy, or support another child, because he is locked up, and they lost their job because they had to stay home to take care of their other children because he is incarcerated and no they have lost two viable incomes because he is locked up. So who in this equation is imprisoned? The men so disproportionately put behind bars for crimes of existing where and when and how they do, or the women and children who are left behind, in an economic prison of their own? The incarceration of one is so often, the incarceration of many. 

Technologically speaking my skills are basic, I don't have any particular skills with graphic design or photography.

On the subject of silence vs being silenced, I notice "being silenced" is in passive voice, not an action one takes on themselves. Being silenced is something that happens to you, as such there's an intrinsic lack of control or consent. To force silence onto someone else is an act of violence. (Though in our classroom silences we've had, there have been mixed reviews; some have felt that the forced silence took something away from them, while others saw it as an opportunity given to them that they would not otherwise take for themselves).

Taking silence for one's self has different implications. It implies thoughtfulness and composure, if silence is taken as a way to prepare for your next moments of speech. It can be a way free yourself of thoughts and find a sort of peace. It can be filled, empty, transitional, stagnant, any number of things. There is a point where the line between choice and force becomes blurred. Self-silencing in response to coercion or external pressures can be deemed a choice, but it is impossible to ignore the external factors that go into one's decision to be silent. If one chooses to be silent out of fear for retribution, is that person not being silenced?

I find myself interested with the economic consequences of the prison system, and would be interested in learning more about who benefits from the industry and the impacts that it has, both on the economy at large and on the individuals caught in the system. It seemed like such an alien concept when I first heard the notion of prisons as economic beings; I suppose I had never given prisons much thought apart from being places of punishment/containment/rehabilitation. 

I believe the major difference between the words “silence” and “silenced” lies in consent. To be silenced is to have silence imposed on you by an external pressure, while silence is something an individual chooses themselves. These two words point to two fundamentally different power dynamics. Because someone being silenced is being stripped of their voice (whether this is done through violent means or not), to be silent in this case, is to be restricted and to be without power, and to have a voice is to have power. On the other hand, “silence” puts the power in the hand of the individual. The individual has the autonomy to choose whether they want to speak or not.

Farida and I have had similar experiences when it comes to being silenced in a classroom setting in our respective institutions. We both thought Zora Neal Hurston’s quote- “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background”- aptly described how we felt attending predominantly white institutions. Before I came to Haverford I never identified myself as black or African American. In my mind I was Haitian. But when I came to Haverford, suddenly I was black. At first I pushed back against this imposition, but slowly I began to identify with being black, because that’s how people treated me. I felt constantly reminded of the fact that I was black, and it didn’t help that people treated me as if that’s all I was. I didn’t realize then what I realize now, I was being silenced. When you look at me, and all you see is a black girl, you have silenced me- me the individual, me the human being with feelings and thoughts that don’t end and begin with my color.

Which is similar to me, Farida, before I came to Bryn Mawr I was just West African; however now that I am at Bryn Mawr, thrown against the predominantly white background, I am  now Black or African American. I never accepted the identity I was forced into. I continue to try to identify myself as African, but every second I spend in a classroom, where I am singled out, the identity becomes me. I am silenced when I am seen as the black or African American girl because the identity that I have created for myself has been erase by the white background.

We both experienced being silenced when we underwent experiences where students would point out the racial difference in the classroom, thus singling us out, thus silencing us. Now we wonder whether or not if we had highlighted the racial difference in the classroom, would the other student be silenced? If we choose to stay quiet and not respond, are we then giving ourselves consent to be silent?

What is the difference between silence and silenced? Reflect on your experiences of silence and being silenced.

I think the main difference between silence and being silenced is choice and privilege. Those who are silenced are often disadvantaged, people whose power has been robbed or who have not been fully accepted into society. Silence can connect to words, but also physical expression, people’s opportunity to share all aspects of themselves freely, and platforms for people to articulate themselves. Many thoughts, ideas, and perspectives are disregarded and discouraged in classroom settings or workspaces because of who says them, how they are articulated, and how the messages are interpreted.  Thoughtful, purposeful silence can be a form of reflection, an essential part of listening to others, and an opportunity for growth. I think I fill too many silences and also do not confront nearly enough silencings. There have been many times when I have felt that I should have spoken out against injustice, a racist/sexist/classicist comment, yet I do not listen enough to understand. I think I have also silenced others with my loud, forceful opinions.

Who is incarcerated in the United States? Pennsylvania? Socio-economic and cultural information about incarcerated people, including adults, youth, sexual orientation of incarcerated?

I think the people who are incarcerated are those who have been deprived of access to social services and opportunities to rise on the socioeconomic ladder. Many incarcerated people have grown up in families or in neighborhoods where they have attended schools that have not focused on the needs of each student, where access to more complex and intriguing books are not available, where it is more difficult to find accommodations for people with learning differences. I think people have grown up in neighborhoods where violence is much more prevalent. I think many incarcerated people do and did not have the same access to tutors or afterschool activities as children. People of color are the vast majority of incarcerated individuals. I think many people who are incarcerated have been abused. I think there are many people in prison on drug charges. There are also many people in prison because they violated immigration laws or/and policies

Who benefits financially from the growth of public and private prisons? What is the financial magnitude of this industry?

Private prison industries benefit from the growth of public and private prisons. People own shares of prisons by purchasing stocks and as the incarceration rates continue to increase, these private investors make millions. The government also spends a substantial amount of money on prisons, about $70 billion dollars each year.

How is prison labor being used today, by whom, for whose benefit?

From the little I know from watching television shows and what I have read, prison labor is being used to make office furniture, manufacture clothes, and other menial, boring tasks. Not only do prisoners get paid so little, normally less than a dollar or sometimes not at all, but also they are not always working in occupations that teach them useful skills. Many people leave prison with a record and few occupational skills. Various large companies take advantage of free or basically free labor to make merchandise. 

How does incarceration affect families of the incarcerated?

Children sometimes grow up without their parents or a parent, which can mean less guidance and support for that child. Children do not have as many role models and this affects their outlook on life and how motivated they are. Kids probably worry they could end up in prison. Families worry about the safety of the people they know who are incarcerated. Families are probably more likely to be exposed to the violence, insecurity, and corruption that occur in prison. Having a family member incarcerated can negatively effect how people view that family and their chances of acquiring a job or an apartment.