Perspective

Perspective is what makes up the realities of the people who experience them in the context of their own, it is everything that encompasses reality. Often, it feels as though our circumstances are natural and unchangeable as we often hold a singular worldview perspective due to our exposure and understanding of only the circumstances that we were born into. However, what most people think is simply a point of view, perspective holds a greater depth and complexity in its nature. In sociology, perspective is defined as “…human behavior is shaped by the groups to which people belong and by the social interaction that takes place within those groups,” according to an article titled, “The Sociological Perspective” by Geneseo University. In this sociological perspective, actions, behavior, and methods are due to the particular society we live in at a particular point in space and time, exploring the interchangeability within which perspectives can shift.

Due to the many angles and views on different structural and social issues within society, this translates to different views affected by different perspectives regarding the prison. A way we can compare different perspectives on prison reform by analyzing the views of those in different sectors of American society. Those who never had to experience the social inequalities that prevent one from gaining access to the privileges of quality support systems such as well funded education or healthcare may never understand the perspective of those who turn to crime to survive. They may see prison as a means of punishment and keeping society safe, so the expansion of prisons and high numbers of 2.3 million incarcerated individuals may sound like a step in the right direction. Unfortunately for those who are affected by these social inequalities, they have a much grimmer view of the system. Many see prison as an inevitability, and a part of a crime cycle they go through to survive because of circumstances they have been born into. Within these oppressed communities, many don’t even have access to the proper education to analyze their situations that this is in fact due to discriminatory behavior that America has always shown towards minorities, deeply rooted in racist narratives.

Change only comes when either the dominant recognize their privilege as well as the lack of privilege of these oppressed groups and thus develop the empathetic motivation to take action for equity, or the individuals within these oppressed communities recognize the roots of their situation and develop critical consciousness as well as a vision for a change in the status quo. Both of these describe the crossing of perspectives which is the strategy and goal of the abolitionist movement for prison reform, which is tackling which systemic issues are tackled through addressing the roots of these issues and creating a chain of positive change. In an article written by Rachel Kushner for the New York Times titled, “Is Prison Necessary?” she addresses the abolitionist perspective on prison reform in the context of structural inequities and a flawed criminal justice system.

Kushner writes about differences in perspectives in an anecdote about Ruth Gilmore, an abolitionist and prison scholar, who attended an environmental justice conference in Fresno in 2003. She spoke to some students, most of who were Latinx, about prison abolition and the possibility of closing prisons as a form of reform since the current system didn’t prove to be effective in rehabilitation. Gilmore was met with doubt and disagreement, however, to her surprise, when the kids later went on to present their findings on the three main hazards growing up in Central Valley, they reported pesticides, police, and prisons. Gilmore states, “Where life is precious, life is precious. They [the kids] asked themselves, ‘Why do we feel every day that life here is not precious?’” meaning(Kushner, pg. 3) referring to the inequities these kids felt, and how it has impacted their lives in ways that felt like it didn’t matter. This is a type of sociological perspective, where these kids’ lived experiences have been paired in negative ways with these particular issues, and so their need for reform surrounds prison itself, viewing the problem exclusively within this realm. However, what Gilmore wanted to express was the abolitionists perspective in this sociological sense. Kushner states, “Abolition means not just the closing of prisons but the presence, instead, of vital systems of support that many communities lack. Instead of asking how, in a future without prisons, we will deal with so-called violent people, abolitionists ask how we resolve inequalities and get people the resources they need long before the hypothetical moment when, as Gilmore puts it, they ‘mess up,’” alluding to the abolitionist perspective that views the issues systemically, with incarceration and failed rehabilitation starting a root, which is the inequity of resources and racial discrimination (Kushner, pg.4). Kushner’s use of Gilmore’s anecdote shows a necessity to address the structural inequalities that certain communities (mainly minorities) face, such as systemic racism, underrepresentation through disenfranchisement, as well as the lack of fruition towards poverty in a country that values money over lives.

Kushner also addresses the evidence of these structural inequalities within the prison demographics themselves, and why it is a recurrent issue within mass incarceration. She states,” In the United States, we now have more than two million incarcerated people, a majority of them black or brown, virtually all of them from poor communities,” noting this huge disparity we see in prisons across America (Kushner, pg. 4). With America’s history (and continued) practices of racial segregation, a disproportionate of minorities are bunched in impoverished communities, where they are often never taught legality, surviving off of crime, where they eventually land in jail. Once they are in jail, the system does nothing to rehabilitate, instead, it punishes them, giving these inmates more trauma and even more disadvantage once they are released, being denied job opportunities and lacking the necessary tools that prevent recidivism. This country punishes these communities for the very situations we have put them through in the first place, then continues to oppress these communities, and continuing the cycle of systemic inequity. Kushner states, “For Gilmore, to ‘never forget’ means you don’t solve a problem with state violence or with personal violence. Instead, you change the conditions under which violence prevailed,” alluding to a growing abolitionist sentiment (Kushner, pg.15). Instead of viewing issues surface level, we must approach such complex issues from the root up.

Now more than ever, we need to step up as a society to help resolve these inequalities through the provisions of support systems that prevent incarceration in the first place, fulfilling the abolitionist mission. Institutions also are a vital component of the mission for setting the foundation of advocacy, providing access to resources for these oppressed communities. One organization who preaches this message of abolition. Justice Now is a non-profit organization located in Oakland, California founded in 2000 with an aim in building safe and equitable communities. They work with women’s prisons and local communities to provide legal advocacy and services that protect legal and human rights through the incarceration process. They employ partners who work within the prisons, as well as volunteers and internships who work within the organization to provide the various services that these women. Working with partners within the prison, and the inmates themselves gives better insight into the lives and experiences of those being directly affected by the criminal justice system and therefore enables an improved ability to provide services to address the inmate’s needs and their communities. Through these services, inmates maintain their rights within the prison and lead successful post-release lives that encourage advocacy and the development of critical consciousness for the communities they come from.

Justice Now provides two main services, namely, legal services and advocacy training. Their legal services include creating human rights reports on the prison abuse and providing direct legal assistance with expertise on compassionate release, allowing individuals who are terminally ill or permanently incapacitated to be released early. Their advocacy sector involves training activist lawyers and community organizers to create these vital support systems within these oppressed communities and driving a force in the direction of equity. An example of their work is presented in Kushner’s articles. When California wanted to build more “gender-responsive prisons, “The organization Justice Now circulated a petition that 3,300 incarcerated people signed, to protest the new facilities intended to house them. A list of the incarcerated signatories — a 25-foot scroll — was presented at the State Capitol, to audible gasps from the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Prisons. The proposal by the state’s Gender-Responsive Strategies Commission was defeated,” (Kushner, pg.7).

Their legal services are addressing the effects of the issue of incarceration, which is the inhumane treatment of those in prison. Although these services do not directly attempt to solve the root cause of an overly discriminatory and oppressive society, these are still very important services nonetheless. There is an absolute need for legal support systems that maintain the legal and human rights of prisoners in a system that too often strips these basic rights through boxing individuals in small sterile cells, exploiting them for money, and provide no rehabilitation services that prevent recidivism. These services help to boost morale and hopefully encourage these inmates to display the same compassion to these oppressed communities as the compassion these legal advisors and community activists within Justice Now has shown them, thus interrupting the cycle of recidivism that prison has set up to benefit themselves. Their advocacy training is the service that tackles the root cause of community discrimination, whether that is based on gender orientation, sexuality, race, or economic status. Unfortunately, the status quo favors the dominant groups of this country, and they maintain power through the oppression of the economically and racially disadvantaged. However, through this advocacy training, those who seek social justice reform can receive the education and tools to do so, thus cultivating critical consciousness and creating positive change in the communities that have been abused by the status quo.

Justice Now is doing really important work all over California and inspiring so many more outside of the state on the importance of human rights for prisoners and the necessity of advocacy. I believe addressing both root and cause of the issues within mass incarceration concerning human rights is a great strategy to ensure change through the entirety of this highly problematic system. Seeing how there are many issues are interconnected, stemming from the economic and/or racial oppression of communities, and their actions for survival that land them in jail in the first place, advocacy truly paves the way to solving the root issues which will have a chain effect on more prominently exposed issues such as mass incarceration. I think Justice Now does a great job in training not only community organizers but also lawyers who need that critical consciousness and empathy to carry out this type of work. This organization reminds me of my community partner, NGS, in which they provide educational and community resources to underrepresented groups in Marin. Within Marin, there is too much of an unequal distribution of resources within the community, and provision of these resources to those who do not normally attain these priveledges, addresses the root causes of structural inequality, so these students can reach their full potential in academics and their lives. NGS does such great work in their organization to encourage their students to perform the same social justice work in their communities, and I am constantly inspired by the students who verbalize their desire to make a positive change in the world. I’m so proud to be a part of NGS and hope to continue work in advocacy in my nursing career with my patients.

Without the option of going outside in light of coronavirus (and the acting up of my wifi), I’ve had more time to do a lot of self-reflecting, namely my position within this crisis and evaluating my actions that have made an impact in this world. The majority of my actual time spent when I’m not doing schoolwork consists of cooking, attempting to exercise to burn off the food I just cooked and watching the videos online. On the news, I see these heroic stories of healthcare workers at the front lines, yet I also see Trump wanting to reopen the economy as soon as possible, knowing it would be risking so many lives during this crisis, and essentially prioritizing the dollar bill over the human life. In the article “The Ideas That Won’t Survive the Coronavirus,” author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, speaks about his thoughts that have developed throughout his quarantine experience. He states,” The biological virus afflicting individuals is also a social virus. Its symptoms — inequality, callousness, selfishness and a profit motive that undervalues human life and overvalues commodities — were for too long masked by the hearty good cheer of American exceptionalism, the ruddiness of someone a few steps away from a heart attack,” and this is, unfortunately, the sentiment amongst many of the Trump administration and its supporters, who spew things like “I’m willing to die for the economy,” (Nguyen, p. 5). Risking your own life for the reopening of the economy means you are involuntarily risking other’s lives, especially those of the high-risk population, or those who lack resources to seek care in cases of this virus.

Hearing these troubling statements, I think about my community partner NGS and the students within the organization whom many come from low-income families in underrepresented communities and have lower access to resources such as healthcare. Within Marin, there is too much of an unequal distribution of resources within the community. Due to this virus, that problem is made so much worse, with resources becoming more scarce as well as unemployment on the rise. Nguyen states, “Our real enemy is not the virus but our response to the virus — a response that has been degraded and deformed by the structural inequalities of our society,” which is what is portrayed by our country’s valuing of money over lives (Nguyen, p. 13). However, we are so blessed to have organizations such as New Generation Scholars. NGS does such great work in their organization to provide access to educational and community resources such as healthcare and meals during this crisis. NGS holds such value in continuing to educate children, and the work at this organization is vital to continue addressing the structural inequalities exacerbated by such a crisis. I am inspired by these heroes I see on the news every day, and I’m so proud to be part of an organization that actively tackles these structural inequalities so effectively through the virus, and continues to advocate for these communities. They inspire me to continue my advocacy work through my nursing career, for the better care of my patients, and the desire for a more just and equitable society.