Prison: Compassion Trauma Circle

I believe that some preconceptions of inmates are that they are heartless people. Or that they are people who don't want to change; often times we see an inmate that is put in jail for those exact reasons. To answer the question "why do people end up incarcerated?" is very complex because I personally believe it starts off with a bad upbringing starting as early as childhood. There, they grow up to not learn healthy cope mechanisms and result into chaotic habits that harm themselves and others. With these mechanisms it can often turn into violence and turn someone into a criminal. 

This topic reminds me of the time when my Criminal Justice 200 class had a panel of 4 ex convicts coming to share their stories with the class. What I took out of the panel of these men were that they grew up in a household with one present parent around but they all faced some kind of hardship that being abondadment, having to come up with survival tactics to have food on the table or getting involved in the wrong crowd because it was the only source of guidance they could depend on.

What stood out to me from the panel and the entire audience was that the Goal of the panel was to get information out the ex convicts for the crimes they committed, when in the end it turned out to be them sharing their stories about why they went down the wrong path and how they wish it could've been different. One of them said that the panel made them feel better, like it was a form of healing and this is because the audience turned it into something compassionate and felt empathy for how hard they had it in the beginning. 

I recommend that people watch the movie "freedom Writers" and how powerful the significance of having someone believe in them can achieve so much. This is what the movie is based on but overall focuses the academics of students that are looked down upon, until one teacher sees the potential that they each carry with a story of their own.