#lawclerk

visited some colorado prisons today, from the execution suite in a maximum security facility, the oldest jail in the state, to the inmate-run tilapia farm down the road. the things i saw and learned and the people i met are going to really hang with me, and my coworkers at the courts and i had a lot to talk about on the drive home from canon city. our guide ended today saying, "prison is punishment; you shouldn't be punished in prison." i'm really stewing on the thought tonight. what i think it means. i keep returning to the idea that the lines are thin between those inside and those outside. we have removed these people from society and deprived them of their privileges and agency (often for justifiable reasons), but that doesn't mean we have removed their personhood. and, most of the time, it also doesn't mean that these individuals won't return to our communities. what do we wish to accomplish in their removal and in their return? how do we do it? the picture is so overwhelmingly vast and complicated in our criminal justice system today. there's a lot to be frustrated about, but there are pockets of hope, too. it's strange--no, terrifying--to know that i now can play a part in this problem, for better or for worse.