Who Me?

In class, the main thing we talked about was crime and punishment. So we discussed a lot about what crime what kind of crimes are there and punishment and what forms of punishment are there. I think the main thing that we focused on was punishment and prison. We talked about what prison is and all of our experiences with prison. A majority of us had said that we had all known where a prison was and we talked about how we knew it was a prison. A lot of us said that it was somewhere near us and described what they looked like and how we picked it up. Some said they knew it was a prison because there were signs saying it was a detention facility, some said they could tell because there was a barbed wire fence surrounding it. That brought us into a conversation on how prisons tend to be hidden in plain sight around us. A lot of us went to schools where there were barbed wire fences surrounding it and seeing barbed wire is just a normal thing so that doesn’t make it stand out. Prisons aren’t always large buildings that look scary and out of place but instead are made to fit and blend in with the surrounding areas.

To me and I think a lot of people of color prison might be something that many of us are accustomed to. I have had a lot of family members who have been sent to prison so it’s not something uncommon for my family. When I was little my family would take lots of family trips up to Niagra falls in upstate New York. I never made the connection with it when I was younger but I’ve talked about it a lot more with her recently but we were always taking trips up there because my mom’s younger brother was in prison so we would take trips to see him and our other family. I also remember sending him letters and packing up packages to send him. It was such a natural thing for me growing up but it shouldn’t be like that. My youngest memories of spending time with my uncle shouldn’t be my family spending our vacations for years going to visit my uncle in prison.