Project One

For our Project One we were told to pick a topic that was interesting to us or that would benefit our lives if we explored it deeper. I chose to pick the topic of incarceration and the effects it can have on people. This project was meant to be a critical thinking project and help us develop ways to think deeper about topics to help us in our everyday lives. Below is my Project One. My goal for this assignment was to present common issues that come with incarceration that most people to do not know about. I wanted my reader to be more aware of the judgements they make and the tribulations that ex-convicts have to deal with as they are reentering society or entering incarceration.I believe that this assignment has helped me realize things about myself when dealing with others and has given me a different outlook on life. I have a better understanding of my own opinions and how passionate I am on the topic.

Maia Rose Wiederhold

Joseph Lewis                                                                                                             

Honors Colloquy

March 9, 2018

Convict Misconceptions

Growing up, a child has a preconceived idea put into their head about police, crime, jail, and other factors that are associated with “bad guys”. The police are the heroes that save the day, meant to catch the criminals and send them to prison where they deserve to be. To a child, and to many others, these criminals are the worst kind of people. They’re mean, they’re heartless, and they deserve to be locked up away from everyone to keep society safe. When I was younger, I would have never thought that one day I would sit next to one of my closest and oldest childhood friends in court and hear the judge tell the family, and everyone in the room, that his father was convicted guilty. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would go to my best friend’s house for dinner and sit across from a man recently released after spending fifty years of his life in a maximum-security facility. Most of all, I could have never seen in my future that my boyfriend would be a man who served three years in prison. All three of these events have occurred in my life within the past year, and each affair has been full of its own emotional turmoil, surprises, and struggles for both myself and the family members of these people. Witnessing firsthand the trauma that friends and family go through when a loved one is sentenced to prison has become a very real and personal problem in my life.

Out of the three men that I have mentioned already, none of them would I consider to be “bad guys”. If I had heard what was happening to these men as a child, I’m sure I would change my perspective. My parents would tell me “Keith’s dad is going to go away for a while because he did something bad.” My adolescent mind would be able to put two and two together and understand what was happening: Keith’s dad is a bad man, who did something bad, and now he’s going where all of the bad guys go. Luckily, as an adult, I can understand the situation better. I have grown up with Keith and his father has played a huge role in my life. He is a good man, a good husband, and a good father to his three children. However, he made a huge mistake that has led him to, most likely, three to five years in prison.

As his father’s case of fraud and embezzlement has unfolded in the local media, I have watched Keith read horrifically hateful comments on news articles and Facebook about his father. People who have never met his dad call him a “pig” and a “greedy bastard”, making judgements off of what they have read in the media versus making their own opinions of him based off the man himself. Being 18 years old, Keith can understand what is happening a little better than his 6-year-old sister, who has lost her daddy and is unable to comprehend why. Lisa will grow up and spend the majority of her childhood now, without her father.

Growing up without a family member due to crime is not uncommon. My best friend’s uncle was recently released from prison after serving fifty years. Being sentenced when he was only 18 years old, the man has no wife and no children, however, he left behind many other loved ones. T.J. had never met his uncle until a few days after he was released. He had heard stories and had seen pictures, but had missed out on developing a relationship with his own family member. As for his mother, and other aunts and uncles, they have grown up without their oldest brother there for them. Now that he is out of prison, he has to work hard to adapt to the real world, an issue that is hard for men and women who have been institutionalized in correction facilities for most of their lives. Not only does his uncle have to struggle to develop relationships with his family and friends after they have become merely strangers to each other, but he must gain an understanding of himself and how he interacts with the outside world. This can often be a problem when trying to find jobs or simply live a healthy, happy, and social life.

Finding employment and being able to support yourself is a huge obstacle to overcome as an ex-convict. My boyfriend, Adam, was released from prison this past October after serving a three-year sentence, and one of his biggest struggles has been finding a job. While he did complete his GED while being incarcerated, he has little to no experience because of how young he was when he got himself into trouble. No work experience makes it hard to create resumes and find someone to give you your first chance, especially with your history and undergoing background checks. Many times, when ex-cons are unable to find work, they try to make money in the easiest way they know how: selling drugs or engaging in other illegal activity. This then leads to them getting caught and ultimately ending back up in the jail cell they came from. These men and women struggle to break the cycle and overcome the challenges that come with simply being released.              
Through the past year I have witnessed three very different, yet similar, cases of convicted criminals. I have seen my boyfriend, a young adult whom I know personally, being released and am watching him reintegrate himself back into the world. Through my best friend, I have witnessed an older man who has been released after a much longer sentence and watched how his life has affected those around him. In contrast, I have experienced through my friend Keith what a family goes through before a loved one is sentenced to prison, and the stress and heartache that comes along with the process. While all three of these men were convicted for three very different crimes and come from completely different backgrounds, they are all more or less facing the same issues that all convicts face. They must deal with their emotions of themselves and their family members, which correlates directly with the relationships they maintain with their loved ones. Being a past criminal, they have to face the struggles of coming to terms with their past and trying to deal with the stigmas that the world has created for them as “bad guys”.                                        

Being an ex-convict in our society is hard, and sometimes we can be the reason for pushing these people down again instead of helping them up. When these people are released from incarceration they deal with so many obstacles that most of us do not realize. They have to go through society with a mistake they made in their past always looming over them. Knowing that they will struggle with their relationships, employment, and their own personal emotions, often leads to depression or a feeling of helplessness. It is easy for us to forget that these inmates, in prison and out, deal with mental health issues. There are many who deal with depression and ultimately result in suicide because they find themselves unable to live in society. A few of the reasons this depression can start is the feelings of loneliness. Sometimes the family members and friends of criminals can abandon them when they are incarcerated, leaving these people with nobody to turn to once they are released. Many fathers and mothers go in to prison and come out with their children barely recognizing them and not knowing who they are. Some people who have completed extremely long sentences are released into a world that is completely different than the one that they came from and are unsure how to operate in it.

While in prison, “time seems still”, my friend always tells me. He says the one thing that got him through is patience and knowing that he needed to use his time there to become a better person. When considering my own experiences this past year with the three men in my life who have undergone the conditions that I have mentioned, I believe I have had a changed mindset and want to share it with others. People will always have a certain opinion until they experience a situation themselves. Never in a million years would I assume that I would fall in love with a man who spent three years of his life in prison. I’m also positive that Keith would never have imagined that he would one day be sitting through his father’s court trial. Before this past year, I hadn’t given much thought to “criminals”. I continued to have the preconceived idea about them that I have had since a child: bad guys deserved to be in prison. I would’ve never thought there would be so much more to it. I encourage every person that I come in contact with to not only open up their minds, but open up their hearts to anyone they meet who may have served time and are struggling to reenter society. By giving them trust, offering them your friendship, responsibility, and love, you are giving them the support they need to better their lives. While I would never wish the firsthand experiences of prison or the court system on anyone, I encourage those who have not gone through a close friend or family member being incarcerated to reconsider their actions when they do come in contact with someone who has been.