“Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.”
-Thomas Merton
ABOUT MY brueggeman project.
The Brueggeman Fellowship program is run out of the Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University. Each year a group of students are chosen based off of a topic they present to immerse themselves in on an international level. Throughout the next year, the students meet with each other and the director to have dialogue around their topics. Each student also plans their own immersion trip and then sets off for another country for six weeks (or more) of solo travel and experiential learning.
My project has shifted many times throughout the past school year and now focuses on issues of reintegration for women rather than occupational strictly in the prison system. After I started studying our "justice system" I realized how high our recidivism rate is and that approximately 60 - 70 % of inmates released are back in prison within 3 years.
Why is this happening? How are we treating people in prison and in what ways do our laws and prejudices keep them from returning as productive, participating citizens? In my mind, our prison system should operate on a philosophy of rehabilitation rather than punishment or the storing America's poor and black (which some would say it is). I know this is a controversial issue and that many people say "they made the choice" or "that isn't where we should concentrate our resources". But, it is where we spend a lot. The government spends about 15 billion annually on our prison system and the number of people in prison has about quadrupled since the 1980s. One in four Americans are in the system in one way or another, either incarcerated or on probation, etc. Think this issue doesn't affect you? I'd argue it affects us all.
Rather than giving up on people who are in the system or spending a ton of money just so that they can return to prison, I think it is essential for all to make sure our recidivism rates are lower. I also think occupational therapy can play a role.
Occupational therapy uses activities that are meaningful to people (occupations) to help people participate in the things they want to, need to and have to do. Its origins go back to the Hull House, where crafts and other activities were used to get immigrants to participate in American society and learn cultural norms and skills. To me, these roots of reintegration apply to our prison system.
I have a lot to learn...about OT, about our prison system and about life in general. Which is precisely why I am going to England for 7 weeks. I will be going on my own, living on my own, and volunteering 20-30 hours a week at Chepstow House, a house and support system for women who have been released from prison. I hope to bring back their stories and share more with all of you about why this is an important issue that we largely ignore.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my project and experiences.
My project has shifted many times throughout the past school year and now focuses on issues of reintegration for women rather than occupational strictly in the prison system. After I started studying our "justice system" I realized how high our recidivism rate is and that approximately 60 - 70 % of inmates released are back in prison within 3 years.
Why is this happening? How are we treating people in prison and in what ways do our laws and prejudices keep them from returning as productive, participating citizens? In my mind, our prison system should operate on a philosophy of rehabilitation rather than punishment or the storing America's poor and black (which some would say it is). I know this is a controversial issue and that many people say "they made the choice" or "that isn't where we should concentrate our resources". But, it is where we spend a lot. The government spends about 15 billion annually on our prison system and the number of people in prison has about quadrupled since the 1980s. One in four Americans are in the system in one way or another, either incarcerated or on probation, etc. Think this issue doesn't affect you? I'd argue it affects us all.
Rather than giving up on people who are in the system or spending a ton of money just so that they can return to prison, I think it is essential for all to make sure our recidivism rates are lower. I also think occupational therapy can play a role.
Occupational therapy uses activities that are meaningful to people (occupations) to help people participate in the things they want to, need to and have to do. Its origins go back to the Hull House, where crafts and other activities were used to get immigrants to participate in American society and learn cultural norms and skills. To me, these roots of reintegration apply to our prison system.
I have a lot to learn...about OT, about our prison system and about life in general. Which is precisely why I am going to England for 7 weeks. I will be going on my own, living on my own, and volunteering 20-30 hours a week at Chepstow House, a house and support system for women who have been released from prison. I hope to bring back their stories and share more with all of you about why this is an important issue that we largely ignore.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my project and experiences.