Prison Reflection

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Prisons have never been a concern of mine. For a brief time, I was interested in the idea of touring the St. Cloud Prison; the reason behind that interest was merely curiosity. I wanted to know what a prison looks like in person rather than through a television screen. Before watching Last Week Tonight’s video, I thought I knew exactly how I felt about prisons and the prisoners inside. I had the mindset that the prisoners must have committed a really bad crime in order to be thrown in a prison and that how they were treated was none of my concern. It was ironic to hear John Oliver say in the video that many people know that they will never end up in prison so how prisoners are treated or the conditions in which they live in are none of the …show more content…

As John Oliver was saying in the video, blacks are 10 times more likely to be sent to prison for drug offenses than whites. I believe it is the reason behind the fact when someone says a prisoner, many people imagine the person being a black male. I am not proud but I know that is what image pops into my head. A black male is my very first perception of prisoners. Of course I know that is completely racist, and I do not want that to be the first thing that pops into my head. I want to think of not only my perception is considered but also the prisoner’s perception. Warren and Fassett claim that perception is “how a person sees the world” (99). A prisoner may go into court with his perception of the world, and then go into prison to find that his perception completely changed. For example, if a black male is in court for excessive drug use and is sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison, he may think to himself that he was caught doing something illegal and it is logical that he must face the consequences. He probably does not assume that he is going to prison not only based on the fact that he was caught but also because of his skin color. He then is in prison and sees that there are 10 times more blacks in prison than whites. That would be enough to change his perception on the world and especially on the justice

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