Growing up, I was always told that prisons exist to keep bad people out of society and to deter them from re-offending or from committing a crime in the first place. It seems that some prisons focus more on rehabilitating individuals, while others only try to keep them locked up. The more I learn about the prison industrial complex and the people in prison from my women's studies classes, the more ridiculous and ineffective these goals seem.
If the purpose of the prison system is to remove those who have committed crimes from society, it does that. But what larger purpose does that serve? The prison system doesn't do much to help those who are locked up and it doesn't address the systemic problems that lead people to commit crimes in the first place. From the stories I have read about incarcerated individuals and how they got there, it seems that many people who end up in prison have had lives filled with a lot of struggle and pain, and I don't think the prison system does a good job of addressing, or even acknowledging, the complicated and difficult lives that those within it have had. For instance, the articles we read about invasive searches point out that many of the women who are subject to these cavity searches are survivors of past physical and sexual abuse. Sure, the prisons are trying to make sure the women and their visitors are safe, but by seeing these women as prisoners rather than as people with unique histories and experiences, they fail to understand why an invasive cavity search might be a particularly traumatizing experience for certain women.
While prisons may succeed at keeping "dangerous" individuals locked up, they don't address the larger societal problems, such as poverty, drugs, deficient mental health care, and a general lack of social supports, that lead many individuals to commit crimes in the first place.
I am looking forward to our first visit to ICIW because it will be a different kind of learning experience than what I have learned about prisons and their effects on women from academia and the media. However, since all of what I know about prisons and prison life comes from these outside sources, I am a little worried about the stereotypes and judgments I hold. I also think that the inherent power dynamic between us as outsiders (non-prisoners, college students, privileged individuals) and the women at ICIW will be a challenge. I don't want them to feel like we are coming in from the outside to "study" them for our own benefit, but I can see how it would be easy for this type of skewed dynamic to develop. I hope that a more reciprocal relationship can form, where we can talk about issues from our different perspectives and learn from each other.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Reflections on Caring
In my mind, to care means to focus on the interests of others instead of your own. To care about someone is to, at times, base your behavior on their needs and wants instead of your own. Nel Noddings talks about becoming "engrossed" in the other and notes that caring involves being present, reactive, and responsive to others. These words resonated with me because one of my biggest irritations is when someone is talking to me without really being "present" in the conversation. The reason this bothers me is because I feel like they don't care about what I'm saying.
An ethic of care is the use this caring mindset as a guide for one's life. It involves approaching people and situations with a consideration of their realities rather than only considering our own realities.
I think I and many others in our society operate in a mindset where we predominantly consider our own reality and experiences. This causes us to make snap judgments about others, their choices, their moralities, and how they came to be in the situations they are currently in. For instance, when we see a woman at the library who has five really loud, annoying children with her, we may wonder what nerve she has to bring them to a place where people are trying to study, or why doesn't she hire a babysitter, or why she had to have so many kids in the first place. If we adopted an ethic of caring, however, we would try to put ourselves in her shoes. We would consider the social, financial, and practical circumstances that may have led her to bring her children with her to the library that day and would realize that she might feel embarrassed, annoyed, and uncomfortable to be in that situation.
I hope to go into a career in politics, and in the political world it is very important to adopt an ethic of care and develop the skill of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Many people who engage in the political sphere, whether by attending a big speech or rally or simply by writing to an elected official, do so because they are upset about something. As a politician, it is important to consider the realities of your constituents and try to understand what leads them to think and act the way they do. This is a struggle for elected officials, since they represent so many different people with drastically different backgrounds and points of view. Even if you ultimately disagree, I think what people value in a leader is his or her capacity for understanding and being able to express disagreements in the context of that mutual understanding. I think politicians who are called "phonies" and are accused of being in politics only for personal gain are the ones that lack an ethic of care.
An ethic of care is the use this caring mindset as a guide for one's life. It involves approaching people and situations with a consideration of their realities rather than only considering our own realities.
I think I and many others in our society operate in a mindset where we predominantly consider our own reality and experiences. This causes us to make snap judgments about others, their choices, their moralities, and how they came to be in the situations they are currently in. For instance, when we see a woman at the library who has five really loud, annoying children with her, we may wonder what nerve she has to bring them to a place where people are trying to study, or why doesn't she hire a babysitter, or why she had to have so many kids in the first place. If we adopted an ethic of caring, however, we would try to put ourselves in her shoes. We would consider the social, financial, and practical circumstances that may have led her to bring her children with her to the library that day and would realize that she might feel embarrassed, annoyed, and uncomfortable to be in that situation.
I hope to go into a career in politics, and in the political world it is very important to adopt an ethic of care and develop the skill of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Many people who engage in the political sphere, whether by attending a big speech or rally or simply by writing to an elected official, do so because they are upset about something. As a politician, it is important to consider the realities of your constituents and try to understand what leads them to think and act the way they do. This is a struggle for elected officials, since they represent so many different people with drastically different backgrounds and points of view. Even if you ultimately disagree, I think what people value in a leader is his or her capacity for understanding and being able to express disagreements in the context of that mutual understanding. I think politicians who are called "phonies" and are accused of being in politics only for personal gain are the ones that lack an ethic of care.
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