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Summer 2019
HONORS 230
To say that this class was eye-opening would be an understatement. HONORS 230 was my first class at UW as well as my first Honors class, and although I have many more quarters ahead of me, I'm already convinced this will be one of the most incredible classes I have ever taken.
In addition to in-class discussions, we met and collaborated with inmates at TRU of the Monroe Correctional Complex on projects related to issues in prison. My group chose to focus on voting rights of prisoners. Below are excerpts from my weekly reflections throughout the course. To view the whole reflection, click on the PDF icon.
Week 1
I'm not sure what I was expecting for my first time going into a prison. Although I was right about the barbed wires and gray walls that Hollywood movies and media coverage have familiarized me with, the interior of TRU with the lobby and the flowers came as a surprise to me. The men also had much bigger personalities than I imagined. I immediately noticed how vocal the TRU students were and how excited they were to learn. I’ve never seen a group of people like this, people who had such strong viewpoints and still wanted to completely immerse themselves in information; it was fascinating to me . . .
Week 2
When we arrived at TRU, we were introduced to the Dog Program and how it allows inmates to train future service dogs. It was heartwarming to see one of the dogs with her trainer and I could tell how much he cared about her and how much effort he was putting into working with her. However, I was taken aback by how the correctional officer was talking to the other prisoners and it made me realize that not only the language of the laws needs to change, the language being used in the prison needs to improve as well. I also couldn't believe how tiny the living units were . . .
Week 3
Our group was excited to share the information we had accumulated over the past week. We started off by going over the statistics we collected from the survey we did at UW and the survey that the men did in the prison, and we noticed some interesting trends. In the UW student survey, the majority of the responses believed that voting is a fundamental right and ranked that as the number one reason as to why people in prison should be allowed to vote. As for the survey done in the prison, we found a lot of interesting responses to the question of explaining whether they care about politics . . .
Week 4
My understanding of criminality and the criminal justice system is like a puzzle, and I always felt like I was missing some key pieces that would allow me to have a more complete perception of what it’s like to be incarcerated in America. By the final week of this class, I finally felt like I found those missing pieces while learning more about this obscure part of society that I had never been exposed to before.
On the day of the presentation, we got to tour a housing unit. It felt strange to see the men on this side of the glass. The word "community was brought up several times . . .
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