2020 has opened many eyes to issues in the United States that were left untouched by society. My partner, Peyton, and I were interested in the high rates of incarceration. Why are so many people being arrested? Why are recidivism rates in the United States so high? Does racial profiling affect arrests? How are people treated in prison? Why is there a stigma of going to prison in the United States but not other countries?
These questions were our leads to the web of the United States justice system.
These questions were our leads to the web of the United States justice system.
-English-
Our first idea was to make multiple journal entires about a new prisoner and their experience in prison. But we didn't go with that since that's probably what everyone is going to do to show perspective. With our creative minds, and the help of Mr. Ward, we decided to create letter between two prisoners from different countries. In our research, we discovered that Norway's recidivism rates are 20%. The way they treat their prisoners are the exact opposite to the United States. The Norway prisoner and the United States prisoner will be writing to each other.
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We had to establish the characters and their backgrounds before we could start writing. The Character Analysis explains the ages, birthdate, incarceration information, spouse, children, and more.
I wrote for Aksel Gjurd and Peyton wrote for Jessie Thomas. Towards the end of the document we planned the content of each letter sent. I have to admit, our organization was very helpful when it came to writing the letters. We had to limit three letters from each prisoner due to the limited time we had for the project. |
Then we moved on to writing the letters:
(TRIGGER WARNING: INCLUDES SENSITIVE CONTENT ABOUT PRISON EXPERIENCES AND MENTAL ILLNESS) (Honestly I got really sappy during the end of writing the letters. I begged my partner to make more letters because I'm a sucker for happy endings.) |
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-History-
Project 2 was such a large project due to the questions we had about incarceration. Why are so many people being arrested? Why are recidivism rates in the United States so high? Does racial profiling affect arrests? How are people treated in prison? Why is there a stigma of going to prison in the United States but not other countries?
Our original idea was to make a mind map because we had multiple ideas of what we wanted to research. We assumed that a mind map would organize our information and eventually link to all topics. After some thinking, and a meeting filled with “I dunnos”, we thought that idea might be too difficult to use perspective as the assigned thinking skill. Honestly, I’ve never made a mind map so I couldn’t visualize how our topics would be placed on the map. Me trying to explain a mind map is what I assume it would look like based on the little information I have on mind maps.
Before we could decide on a product idea, we had to establish what specifically we wanted our project about. Eventually, we decided to focus our research on maximum-security prisons and the treatment and financial aspects of running those prisons. Since we are focusing on Norwegian and American maximum-security prisons in english, we decided to compare the two in our product. We decided that the product would be a key findings report.
Before we could decide on a product idea, we had to establish what specifically we wanted our project about. Eventually, we decided to focus our research on maximum-security prisons and the treatment and financial aspects of running those prisons. Since we are focusing on Norwegian and American maximum-security prisons in english, we decided to compare the two in our product. We decided that the product would be a key findings report.
The key findings report is an informational piece set in a perspective of the writer. The perspective we chose for the writer is a law maker in America observing Rikers' Island and Halden prison in Norway.
(Felt super fancy writing this with Peyton. It was as if we were actual professionals and we were commenting on the findings of the individual prisons.) |
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-Art-
From our research we learned that punishment in incarceration is not effective to lower recidivism rates. Punishment has negative outcomes to mental, physical, and emotional health. Former prisoners in the United States are more likely to return to prison within 2-9 years. The United States recidivism rate is 61%.
There is obvious signs of lack of coping skills these former prisoners have. Since they were punished, they don’t know how to adjust to current society.
There is obvious signs of lack of coping skills these former prisoners have. Since they were punished, they don’t know how to adjust to current society.
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We wanted to make an abstract piece on the mental health of a prisoner/former prisoner in the United States. At first we invisioned a collage of words/phrases from real prison stories. I did a bit of research on the stuctues of prison and that the shape and material can affect the feelings of a person. There are three shapes that American prisons are made into. Radical, telephone, and courtyard. These designs limit movement with it’s small, identicale hallways and rooms. We wanted to shape our piece like a prison to show the trapped feeling prisoners have.
Buuuuut we scratched that idea and instead made, still a collage-like piece, but it was woven. The artist we referenced was David Sameul. He takes photos of a person’s profile, and then another photo of them looking off into the distant or their side profile and mess the two pictures to together. The way he creates these pieces are by cutting the photos into strips and weaving them, making the pieces look transparent. |