Personal Writing
The first piece of my own writing that I've chosen to include is a response to Mumia Abu-Jamal's "B-Block Days and Nightmares," a piece originally published in April, 1990. My response was an attempt to explore the connection between prisoner, prison guard, and "innocent" bystander. I hoped to discover how to identify with each of these roles, to show that the roles we take in life are both flexible and inextricably wound with the roles of others. Without the prisoner, there would be no guard. Without the innocent, there would be no guilty. Without the free, there would be none to imprison.
I felt that this was some of my best writing because of the process of discovery that took place during its creation. By adopting multiple identities, I was able to immerse myself in the experience of a range of parties involved in the maintenance of the prison system. I found it easier to humanize the incarcerated, I felt the shame of my wickedness as an unjust prison guard, and I felt the apathy of my role as a free person, a bystander.
"Alcatraz Hospital" by Drew Bates
My second piece of writing that I've chosen to include is an investigative, argumentative paper about the healthcare of pregnant women in the United States prison system. I chose to include this piece because I believe it demonstrates a clear divide between the treatment of free and imprisoned citizens in the United States, and between the male and female populations in prison.
The cruel and unusual punishment clause under the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution came up frequently over the course of this class, often in relation to solitary confinement. It also appeared frequently in my research regarding incarcerated women's healthcare, especially shackling practices. The research I conducted revealed intersections between race, gender, and socioeconomic status bound in the shackling practices of pregnant incarcerated women, reminding me of the connections and intersectionalities that sometimes go unnoticed in our social and political systems.