Victims and Jenifer Bishop Jenkins

Jenifer Bishop Jenkins brought to light an often over looked issue in the criminal justice scene, that is how to deal with victims of violent crimes or extreme tragedy. Jenkins showed how a victim can take on one of two roles. One could choose to be extremely depressed, living in fear and only going through the motions of life. Or, like Jenkins, one could choose the role of advocate, still at times being say but sharing their personal story in order to create awareness, doing so in memory of their lost loved one and others who may have come into the same end. Jenkins has taken what has happened in her life and is trying to shed light on the subject of victims. She has chosen to take the high road or as they say she has learned to make lemonade with what lemons life gave her. During her speech for out class she did still get emotional when talking of her sister’s passing yet anyone who watched her speak could tell she wanted to share her message instead of being trapped by her sadness.

Another great point that Jenifer Bishop Jenkins brought up concerned how one actually should treat a victim…

Darrell Cannon, Rip Van Winkle and Questions of Accountability

After spending 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Darrell Cannon became a free man, only to find his world completely changed. Despite being tortured and wrongfully imprisoned, Cannon was most upset about having lost many of his loved ones. “I lost everything,” he said, choking back on his tears. He [...]

Coerced Confessions

Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to hear Darrell Cannon speak in class.  However, the topic of coerced confessions has been of great interest to me since taking a course that covered issues related to Psychology and Law.  Through my internship this semester I am working with a White Paper written about this topic.  [...]

Questions of bias

After reading all of these articles and essays from class, what I find interesting is that it usually plays up the sympathetic side of the prisoner. I find myself feeling bad for the prisoner, and yes, there is quite a lot of evidence that shows the injustice that they face. But I just wonder how I would [...]

Academia inside Prison Walls

As criminal justice students, we often have few opportunities to read work by prisoners or ever hear what prisoners have to say about prison. What we are exposed to, however, are scholarly articles, written by academics, maybe with a little input from prisoners themselves but information gathered mostly from statistics and other quantitative research. I [...]

Prisoner Art

As I walked through the Light from the Inside: Art From Illinois Prisons located within the Chicago Cultural Center, I couldn’t help being amazed by the creativity of the prisoners locked up within Illinois.  Not only would the artwork be phenomenal had someone else created it, but what really blew me away was the art [...]

Why are prisons built far from large cities?

I noticed similarities between Kupers and Rhodes piece in how they both mentioned this idea of secrecy and extreme exclusion that the inmates suffer in solitary confinement.  I don’t think anyone is denying the extreme sense of exclusion and deprivation felt by inmates confined in solitary confinement, but the idea of secrecy is worthy of [...]

Supermax prisons: Existing or Living?

When reading Rhodes’ article, centering around her anthropological background, I found her perspective unique in discussing prisoners as beings, and no longer really human.  She ingeniously described prisoners as merely existing, rather than actually living, regardless of what amenities they are provided.  One consequence of supermax prisons is the inability to relate the self to [...]

The Big Debate … How harsh is too harsh?

Letters from prisoners, Stateville Speaks submissions, prison reform laws, articles on prison conditions, …  The list of sources for debates about prison conditions and our justice system are endless.  And while I’ve enjoyed learning about these situations so far this semester, I can’t help but recognize a conflict within myself. I have not personally dealt [...]

Juvenile Life Sentence

In Response to the Human Rights Watch Report entitled The Rest of Their Lives: Life without parole for child offenders in the United States. Found at  http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us1005/ I was blown away by the statistic that over 2,000 juveniles are currently serving a sentence of life without parole in the United States while in the rest [...]