Problems at the Washtenaw County Jail

What I’ve observed to be pressing problems at the Washtenaw County Jail are the following: 1) the hostility that the incarcerated women embody; 2) the effect that having only one hour of free time has on prisoners’ psyches when they are in the maximum security portion of the jail; 3) the social stigma that a freed inmates faces when he/she has to identify that they’ve been to jail. All three problems have impacted me someway either during our sessions or outside of class. Furthermore, all problems have, as causes, situations dealing with privilege and oppression.

While I’m not in a section of SOC389 that affords me an opportunity to interact with women prisoners, I am able to converse with fellow classmates that do. These classmates have mentioned the hostile environment that they continually encounter, and feel that it’s caused by the women inmates having no decision in whether they attend the discussion session. This is a stark contrast from the men’s portion of the jail where inmates are able to choose three activities from more than ten. Those who come to our creative writing sessions do so because writing is something they are at least interested in, and my group has yet to have a participant who has caused trouble.

When I was introduced to this dichotomy between the two sections, the readings for that week included Donziger’s “Women in the Criminal Justice System.” This article shed more light on why the women in the jail might be hostile toward my classmates by suggesting that a high portion of the women might be incarcerated because of non-violent offenses, and odds are that the majority of them are mothers who have been separated from their children. Donziger states that “78 percent of the women in prison have children”...

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... if we’re able to give employment opportunities to inmates, this will help provide a solid base layer for them to build a new life on. They will be able to contribute to the community that they live in, and help prevent the possibility of them returning back to the jail.

Because our exposure to the jail is limited to only a semester, if we’re able to connect with businesses that will be in place long after we’ve left the university, that will bring forth more opportunities than what my group is able to produce by itself. Our hope is that if an inmate is able to be hired through these connections, it will serve as the first example of a community trying to better itself. The inmate will then realize what is possible if people collaborate their resources, motivation, and work ethic, towards a goal that tries to get rid of the oppression that’s currently in place.