As the 2010-11 academic year comes to an end, PRLS would like to thank all who contributed to and supported our endeavors. We would also like to take this opportunity to share with our readers feedback we have received from the Spring semester series on prison issues, a collaborative venture with the Institutes of African American Studies and Asian American Studies, the Women’s Studies Program, Rainbow Center, UNESCO Chair and Institute of Comparative Human Rights, and PRLACC:
“The inaugural event for the semester-long series Combating the Prison Industrial Complex: Testimonial, Truth and Action featured a panel presentation of former inmates hosted by UConn Alumnus and acclaimed author Wally Lamb. The panel consisted of Lareese Harvey, Brenda Medina and Kathy Wyatt, who were former participants in a writing workshop taught by Lamb at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, CT. Harvey, Medina and Wyatt shared with the audience compelling works based on their personal experiences that they penned during their time at York, some of which were featured in the testimonial book Couldn’t Keep It To Myself. This well-attended presentation also chronicled the controversy surrounding the book’s 2004 publication, and the therapeutic value that writing has for those in the prison system.”
B. Diaz
“Of all the PRLS events I attended this year, the Innocence Project: Testimonials is the one that impressed me the most. It was a great experience to learn about the Innocence Project and their successful cases. Criminal justice is an issue we don’t discuss much in our society. It is also an area in which we grant too much power to the state because most of those involved are unpopular in society.
Listening to the stories narrated first-person by those wronged by our system is a great way to get a conversation going on criminal justice reform. I commend PRLS for their sponsoring of this event. These are the type of issues we should be dealing with in academia – real life events that can transform lives. I look forward to the next round of events and panels organized by PRLS. I must add that the whole series of events this semester was amazing. The Innocence Project stood out for its realism and real-life context.”
J. Navarro-Rivera
“The Innocence Project: Testimonials was very productive, engaging and interesting. I liked this event because it helped the audience to connect testimonials with academic research at the institutional level. For example, I believe it was helpful for the audience to know the process these individuals have to follow to become exonerated clients, the stereotypes that follow them after the incarcerations, the work of the activists assisting them, etc. I also liked how we, the audience, were alert all the time to the event, to the narrative. The question & answer session was also a very productive and engaging opportunity to learn more.”
Y. Garcia
“Our class had the option of receiving extra credit for writing a paper related to the Innocence Project Testimonials. A group of us figured we would go for 15 minutes, get enough material to write our papers, then leave. But the presentation was so good that we all stayed for the whole thing. Will there be more events like this?”
Matt
“Cruel and Unusual does not stray far from the gruesome implications of this Outcast Film, disclosing the secrets behind transgendered men and women having to cope with the devastating conditions and unfairness of the penitentiaries they are placed in. specific difficulties that not only women had to endure because of possible wrongful incarcerations, but also because they find themselves in the wrong bodies as they identify with another gender and sex. Stories are accompanied by prison staff/faculty commentary; the documentary truly opens eyes."
K. Dortche
"On April 11 several of my students and I had the mixed pleasure of learning from Dr. Valerie Jenness, Dean of Social Ecology at UC-Irvine, about her research on transgender prisoners in the California state prison system. I say mixed because it’s hard to leave such a presentation without mixed emotions. I was impressed with the scope of Dr. Jenness’s long-term, mixed method research into the lives and needs of transgender prisoners; I was appalled by her findings, which reveal the overwhelming incidence of sexual and other physical violence in the prison system through personal stories as well as statistical measurement, however, I was dismayed at the dilemma Dr. Jenness now finds herself in; commissioned by the State of California to measure the safety of male to female transgender prisoners in all-male prisons and submit recommendations for improvement, Dr. Jenness discovered that “safety” must be understood not only as physical, but also mental and emotional. The unique challenges transgender prisoners present both to her research and to the prison system nation-wide now leave Dr. Jenness, and the California Prison system, with a complexity they may not have anticipated. Dr. Jenness presented her research, and her dilemma, in ways that cut through this complexity for those who attended her discussion, but left us nonetheless without simple answers. Which is, perhaps, ultimately the best place to be. I would very much like to thank the sponsors of this program for bringing Dr. Jenness to campus. My students and I continued to discuss her work both in and out of class, and I have no doubt many of us will continue for many months the conversation she began for us.”
B. Gurr
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