The first speech that I listened to was from a young woman who was seemingly composed and put together. However, as her speech continues she exposes herself to the audience as an addict and a convicted felon. This came as quite a surprise because she looked so ordinary and tame. As she continued on with her speech, she began to speak about the prison society which she claimed had given her her life back. Specifically, she mentioned her mentor who had given her a support network as well as employment. This was heartwarming to think that there are genuinely good people willing to devote their own time to help others get a second chance.
Furthermore, she was speaking about how harshly the people in contemporary society view ex-offenders. Certainly, the people in society who are judging these former convicts are not helping these people to move forward from their pasts. I honestly believe that this immediate judgement that so many people place on ex-offenders just further isolates them, and ultimately makes it harder for them to make the transition back into civilization. People who stereotype prisoners, convicted felons, and inmates make it easier for them to slip into old dangerous habits. The main goal of the speech was to make other people aware of how our society needs to improve on
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He spoke about how he tries to be a good advocate for all of his clients. He spoke about how his clients need someone that they can trust and talk to on the outside because not all people have this. He explained that his clients have non-legal issues that they struggle with, and as their public defender he finds himself helping them with a lot of non-legal problems. He also said that in his sincerest opinion the United States has a pitiful criminal justice system and that it must be revised. He made the point that the ex-convicts that he works for need support and determination to get out of the criminal justice
At first viewing of the documentary "Gideon's Army.' * you may become overwhelmed by the dire situation of the criminal justice system in the South, specifically with regard to the poorer and less educated population. To observe how stressed the public defenders are, how tapped the resources, and how desperate the defendants, you struggle with the notion that there may not be anything that can be done and it's too big a problem to overcome. But delving into the professional, and, at times, personal life of Travis Williams, a public defender in Georgia, you feel determination and hope. Williams advocates for each client with passion and diligence.
I agree with your post Brian. Foss delivered his speech confidently with facts you can't ignore. Usually when someone commits a crime it's easy to label them as "a delinquent" or a bad person in general. What people tend to overlook however, is the reasoning behind those actions. I really appreciate that Foss as a prosecutor, is someone who is adamant about changing lives for individuals before they suffer to the hands of a system that needs help itself.
As much as he wanted to get out he just could not go the rest of his life lying about it. Obviously those are examples of times when the audience felt sorry for him and possibly even thought he was not guilty, but there were times when the documentary made him look guilty. An example of this was his past. He had been to jail three times before he was accused in 1985. He is not that intelligent and seems to be influenced by the wrong people.
David Feige’s Indefensible: One Lawyer’s Journey nto the Inferno of American Justice invites people from all walks of life to a second hand experience of the criminal justice system hard at work. What is most interesting about Feige’s work is its distinct presentation of the life of a public defender in the South Bronx. Instead of simply detailing out his experiences as a public defender, Feige takes it a step further and includes the experiences of his clients. Without the personal relationships that he carefully constructs with each of his defendants, Feige would not be able to argue that the criminal justice system is flimsy at best, decisions always riding on either the judge’s personal attitudes or the clients propensity towards plea bargaining.
In his article, Removing the Stigma of Past Incarceration: Ban the Box, Bill Mosley explains it is “understandable that many employers may believe it is their best interest to avoid hiring ex-convicts. But it is also in the interest of society at large to reintegrate ex-convicts into society and to stop adding to the large underclass of former prisoners with minimal prospects of earning an honest living.” Mosley acknowledges the discomfort an employer may experience knowing one of their employees have a criminal history, however he supports his opinion by immediately explaining the most effective medium of reducing the number of former prisoners in society is to integrate them into the working force. His purport in this piece of text is to accentuate the importance society as a whole has in terms of eliminating criminal discrimination. In addition to Mosley’s argument, Daryl V. Atkinson and Kathleen Lockwood, in their article The Benefits of Ban the Box, claim that “hiring people with criminal records facilitates public safety by reducing recidivism rates.”
Introductory Textbooks know that they don’t need the Stanford Prison Experiment to be awesome since the belief is that they’re already awesome. You and I might not share the same opinions but who knew textbooks could be all that. Which is ironic because The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the most famous experiments in psychological history. Haslam and Reicher say the SPE website receives 7,000 visitors each day. Richard Griggs asks the question, is with the Stanford Prison having such prestige, why don’t some textbooks include this famous experiment and critiques?
What I am describing to you is a little thing called prison overcrowding. Establishes Speaker Credibility I personally began to become interested in the overcrowding of prisons when my own brother was let out early due to it. My brother described the horrid situation that the
Prison Problems in the U.S. The United States have the biggest incarceration rate in the world. Our prisons are full of convicts, rapists, and murderers. One of our biggest problems are is that we don't have enough money too feed them and keep a roof over their heads. Another issue is the proportion of middle aged men in our country are either black or hispanic.
There’s a multitude of things that need to be repaired in our system, and prison is one of them. Prison reform is an important issue because we need to take care of everyone and with the way we treat criminals, we do not see them as equal. We need to assess illegal acts correctly instead of trying to put people in jail for the rest of their lives. We also need to work more on how we try to rehabilitate people. Instead of barring convicts off from the rest of us, we need to teach them how to integrate, so they can live better lives than they did
However, one main point struck my attention, as quoted from the article, “participants with criminal records frequently end up incarcerated, incurring probation or parole violations, or detained awaiting resolution of new charges.” Hence, with this statement it really is an eye-opening statement because it is a true
There is not a person in this world that can be defined as perfect, many of us often make mistakes everyday. When a person does mess up or do something wrong we often hope that there will be another chance to do right and fix what we have done wrong in the past. Second chances can take the worst of people and turn them into the great law abiding citizens that every country needs. Giving ex felons second chances should be a slow process with small steps leading to being a normal citizen again and the first step would be them regaining their voting rights back. Convicted ex felons are just as much as american citizens as anybody else a person may know.
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.
Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.
After working with these men for months, you begin to look past the societal mask they are forced to wear due to their past mistakes, and begin to see them as real genuine people. [Thesis and Preview] Life after prison affects all realms of a community. Through the process of leaving prison, to jobs, and to living conditions, I hope we have a better understanding on life after incarceration from this speech.
” I can’t say that I agree or disagree fully about everything he or some of the things he stated, but I must say there’s a lot of validity he poses to a listening ear. Once I went on a Couples Retreat with our Church, my ex-husband