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Weekly Response

Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants or (CURE) is an advocacy group whose mission is: “We believe that prisons should be used only for those who absolutely must be incarcerated and that those who are incarcerated should have all of the resources they need to turn their lives around. We also believe that human rights documents provide a sound basis for ensuring that criminal justice systems meet these goals.” This advocacy group informs its members with the information and tools needed to help them understand the criminal justice system. CURE works to fix the criminal justice system, which means they are trying to help the people affected by such system. They help by contacting Congress on different reforms they should be doing, and telling Congress about rehabilitation, and why it needs to be done better.  They are informing the community about the issue, which is the right thing to be doing so there can be a change in the system. Identity, for CURE, is one that looks at the criminal identity and erases it. They give them a fresh start because this group is made up of the ranks of people formerly in prison and family members or friends of prisoners. This drives their work by for them the more lives they can touch the more the can be a part g the CURE group.

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Prison for Rehabilitation

The prison system in America is a very complex and intricate system that deals with various parts. From Racial disparity in the justice system to the issue with private versus public prisons and funding, they have been issues in America over the years. The incarceration of minorities and the act of punishing them has been the way of America since forever. In a society where race may play a factor in an arrest, the government has been able to incriminate and incarcerate many minorities. When minorities are placed in prison, they then have to face the struggles within the prison which negatively affect them. Currently, America faces social and economic issues regarding minorities in the prison system. Considering that the government targets and punishes minorities, rehabilitation would be a better approach instead of punishment for life in and after prison.

The social and economic issues of prisons begin at home in many communities. Issues like gentrification force minorities out of their homes because they can no longer afford it. Because they can no longer afford to live in their neighborhoods they may turn to theft so these people can make it by: “low income individuals are more likely to become victims of crime” (Kearney).  The social and economic chain is how issues of imprisonment start:

This high risk of imprisonment translates into a higher chance of being in prison than of being employed. For African American men in general, it translates into a higher chance of spending time in prison than of graduating with a four-year college degree (Pettit 2012; Pettit and Western 2004).

Due to the downward chain of social and economic issues like gentrification, ghettos, and poverty many minorities are incarcerated because they are led to the crime.

Often social and economic issues are translated into the youth of communities. These issues are seen mainly in the youth of low-income communities: “low-income youths are more likely to engage in violent and property crimes than are youths from middle- and high-income families” (Kearney). Its seen throughout America that a lot of the prison make up is of these low-income youths. They then fall into a cycle of crime because the prison system doesn’t give them the proper programming to rehabilitate. Going to jail at a young age can mentally leave a mark on someone’s life: “high rates of recidivism mean that many youths, once in the prison system, will stay there for significant portions of their lives. Up to one-third of incarcerated youth return to jail or prison within a few years after release” (Child Trends).  These issues are generally seen more in out minority communities which is why there is a higher number of Black and Hispanic youth in prison: “among the estimated 717,800 men ages 18 to 29 who were incarcerated…, 37 percent (290,100) were black and 23 percent (180,400) were Hispanic” (Child Trends). These numbers are much higher than other races and the trend continues to occur in the Black and Hispanic communities.  

Life inside prison isn’t a life most people want. Prisons are filled with people who have committed crimes from murder to having drugs on them, yet they are placed in the same environment with the same rules. Prisons are to hold criminals, but a lot of prisoners today haven’t done any real harm. These people who are incarcerated are then labeled as criminal and therefore treated as such. They are harshly punished by the conditions of prison in several ways. They are cut off from the world, and stripped of their identity because of America's mass incarceration: “found that 25% of prisoners (364,000 people), almost all non-violent, lower-level offenders, would be better served by alternatives to incarceration such as treatment, community service, or probation. Second, another 14% (212,000 prisoners) have already served long sentences for more serious crimes and can be safely set free” (Eisen). A good number of prisoners are left to rot in jail, yet they don’t need to be there anymore. A lot of offenders have committed petty crimes and were then sentenced years in prison, but keeping them in prison is just a way of mass incarceration.

Being in prison is a dangerous thing because the government has allowed it to become such a place. Although criminals are there to serve their time, in some cases they are put in an environment worse than they came from. Offenders are put into an environment of violence and in fact crime. One may think people in prison can’t commit further crimes; however, studies have suggested otherwise: “murders are committed in prison; so are thefts. Arson is committed in nearly every prison riot; sex crime runs rampant in many prisons” (Leopold 33). The reality is that prison conditions promote violence. Because the government gives prisoners the bare minimum to survive, prisons become a dog eat dog world. For example, the amount of food prisoners receive encourages prisoners to want to steal someone else’s because they are probably hungry: being served a small amount of an unappetizing meal.  Secondly, the personnel that works these prisons are trained and equipped with a sense of violence instead of care, which is needed for rehabilitation. Although it’s important to understand that some of the criminals are dangerous and officers need to be protected if something goes wrong:

“Discipline in prison is maintained by force, fear, and threats. More locks, more bars, more machine guns are the universal answer to every problem. This may reduce the number of riots and exact a surly, superficial obedience to rules; it certainly does not tend to rehabilitate” (Leopold).

The system should not be promoting violence, but encouraging rehabilitation. They expect for prisoners to not be violent, by being violent to them. The system doesn’t want prisoners to get better, so they don’t show them a new way to get better, but only reinforce the idea that goes them there in the first place.

Prisons believe that it would be better for prisoners to work while in jail, so they can be ready to work when released in the real world. Although it’s a good idea to give prisoners work while in jail, the work needs not to be meaningless and mentally brainwashing: “work, in prison, if indeed work exists at all, tends to be uninteresting, soul-deadening drudgery, with no application to modern methods of manufacturing” (Leopold). Sometimes work isn’t even an option for prisoners, but in some cases, that can a good thing. For example,

“In one prison a large group of prisoners was kept occupied for months moving a large pile of sand from one side of the prison yard to the other in worn-out roasting pans from the kitchen. Once the pile was moved, the prisoners moved it back again to where it had originally been.”

This type of work doesn’t do anyone any good. Rehabilitation is about getting the prisoner to a better place to live where they don’t have to commit crimes.

The health conditions in prison is a punishment on its own. Disease and viruses run throughout prisons. Urban communities have been impacted by disease and viruses and there is a parallel in the prisons, which are filled with the members of these urban communities. These members of urban communities are being arrested and they bring those health issues into a prison where disease can grow and spread: “health conditions that are over represented in incarcerated populations include substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other infectious diseases, perpetration and victimization by violence, mental illness, chronic disease, and reproductive health problems” (Freudenberg). With conditions that allow these problems to grow is inhumane, especially when the government has the power to change it. This type of environment doesn’t promote for prisoners to even live outside of jail because they are dying in prison. A healthier environment can help the prisoner to have a better life after prison:

“High rates of recidivism mean that many youth, once in the prison system, will stay there for significant portions of their lives. Up to one-third of incarcerated youth return to jail or prison within a few years after release. Those who experience punitive conditions and mistreatment, on the other hand, are likely to return to society psychologically shattered and in poor or worse state of physical and mental health than when they entered” (Penal reform).  

The environment that people are in simply affect the way they go about life. The physical conditions of prison play a significant role in whether or not prisoners return or not.

The economic issue of low-income youth being placed in juvenile detention instead of rehabilitating them and teaching them a different way is one seen across America. Some experts have tried a different approach, for example, “promoting cognitive behavioral therapy for these youths to help them recognize and rewire the automatic behaviors and biased beliefs that often result in judgment and decision-making errors” (Kearney). Cognitive behavior helps solve the issue of their thinking, which is better than punishing them and leaving them with the same type of thinking that would lead them back to prison.

Rehabilitation is needed for prisoners to have a healthy development into life out of prison. Outside relations is one factor that is important for rehabilitation; however, the prisons system of punishment harms the prisoner in long run: “visits are strictly limited; letters are permitted only to selected, approved individuals, and then only weekly, biweekly, or even monthly” (Leopold). Few visits from people of the normal world can change the mindset of a prisoner. They can lose their outside community because that community has continued to move on in life; however, the prisoner is still stuck 8 or 9 years behind when they first got arrested. Rehabilitation can work with health issues in the prison: “Correctional systems can have a direct effect on the health of urban populations by offering health care and health promotion in jails and prisons, by linking inmates to community services after release, and by assisting in the process of community reintegration” (Freudenberg). Prisons would offer inmates a better chance at life after prison if they are educating inmates and allowing them to give back to the community while in jail.

           Minorities, specifically Blacks and Hispanic youth, suffer from a cycle of crime because of the social and economic issues in urban communities. There are health, violence, and lack of useful programming in prisons that aid in the cycle of these minorities being in prison. The negative conditions in prison counteract the work of rehabilitation and it falls short in the long run, and prisons find themselves never really getting better, but continuing to suffer in the cycle of jail. The government has many minority Americans in prison doing them no justice, and not helping them to be normal citizens like everyone else. Also, it's important to give prisoners better living conditions because just that can help the issue in a big way. Prison reformers need to be done to release prisoners with minor offensives. Minor offenders no longer need to be kept in a dirty prison getting no help for the real world, and a lot needs to be done. Better work programs, health conditions, and rehabilitation programs need to be implicated so America can be the society it claims to be in the constitution.

Word Count: 1884

Works Cited

Chettiar, Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Inimai. “39% Of Prisoners Should Not Be in Prison.” Time,

Time, 9 Dec. 2016, time.com/4596081/incarceration-report/.

Child Trends Databank. (2012). Young adults in jail or prison. Available

at: https://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=young-adults-in-jail-or-prison

Freudenberg, N. J Urban Health (2001) 78: 214.

https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.2.214

Kearney, Melissa S., and Benjamin H. Harris. “Ten Economic Facts about Crime and

Incarceration in the United States.” Brookings, Brookings, 30 Aug. 2016.

Leopold, Nathan. "What is Wrong with the Prison System," Nebraska Law Review vol. 45, no. 1

(January 1966): p. 33-57.

“Prison Conditions: The Issue.” Penal Reform International,

www.penalreform.org/priorities/prison-conditions/issue/.

Wakefield S. 2007. The consequences of incarceration for parents and children. PhD

thesis. Univ. Minn.

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priority plan

Priority Plan

Thesis: Currently, America faces social and economic issues regarding minorities in the prison system. Considering that the government targets and punishes minorities, rehabilitation would be a better approach instead of punishment for life in and after prison.

 Broad topics mentioned/included in thesis:

1.     Social and economic issues (regarding prisons)

2.     Minorities in the prison system

3.     Government targeting minorities

4.     Rehabilitation in prison

 1.     Topic 1: Social and economic issues (regarding prisons)

a.     Basic Information Necessary to prove:

                                               i.     Low income individuals are more likely to become victims of crime

                                             ii.     Disadvantage youths engage in risker criminal behavior

b.     Examples Necessary to Prove:

                                               i.     “the victimization rate for all personal crimes among individuals with family incomes of less than $15,000 was over three times the rate of those with family incomes of $75,000 or more (DOJ 2010a).”

                                             ii.     “The most prevalent crime for low-income victims was assault, followed closely by acts of attempted violence, at 33 victims and 28 victims per 1,000 residents, respectively. For those in the higher-income bracket, these rates were significantly lower at only 11 victims and 9 victims per 1,000 residents, respectively.”

                                            iii.     Youths from low-income families (those with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level) are equally likely to commit drug-related offenses than are their higher-income counterparts.

                                            iv.     In contrast, low-income youths are more likely to engage in violent and property crimes than are youths from middle- and high-income families. In particular, low-income youths are significantly more likely to attack someone or get into a fight, join a gang, or steal something worth more than $50. In other words, youths from low income families are more likely to engage in crimes that involve or affect other people than are youths from higher-income families.

  2.     Topic 2: Minorities in the prison system

a.     Basic Information Necessary to prove:

                                               i.     There’s almost a 70% chance that an African American man without a high school diploma will be imprisoned

                                             ii.     African American men are the largest incarcerated group of people

                                            iii.     By their fourteenth birthday, African American children whose fathers do not have a high school diploma are more likely than not to see their fathers incarcerated

3.     Topic 3: Government targeting minorities

4.     Government targeting minorities

                                               i.     Federal and state policies have driven up the incarceration rate

                                             ii.     The US incarceration rate is more than six times that of European countries

                                            iii.     Gentrification

b.     Examples Necessary to prove:

                                               i.      

1.     Topic 4: Rehabilitation in prisons

a.     Basic information Necessary to prove:

                                                        i.     There needs to be more rehabilitation in prison

                                                      ii.     Some prisons around the world function primarily on rehabilitation rather than punishment

                                                     iii.     Rehabilitation would be better for criminal offenders for life after prison

b.     Examples Necessary to Prove

                                                        i.     Victims of personal crimes face both tangible costs, including medical costs, lost earnings, and costs related to victim assistance programs, and intangible costs, such as pain, suffering, and lost quality of life (Miller, Cohen, and Wiersama 1996). There are also public health consequences to crime victimization. Since homicide rates are so high for young African American men, men in this demographic group lose more years of life before age sixty-five to homicide than they do to heart disease, which is the nation’s overall leading killer (Heller et al. 2013).

                                                      ii.     Some experts have consequently begun promoting cognitive behavioral therapy for these youths to help them recognize and rewire the automatic behaviors and biased beliefs that often result in judgment and decision-making errors. Promising results from several experiments in Chicago— in particular, improved schooling outcomes and fewer arrests for violent crimes—suggest that it is possible to change the outcomes of disadvantaged youths simply by helping them recognize when their automatic responses may trigger negative outcomes (Heller et al. 2013).

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Annotations

1.     Ten Economic Facts About Crime and Incarceration in The United States

2.     Melissa S. Kearney and Benjamin H. Harris – Google

3.     Source talks about incarcerating minorities and rehabilitation and things to do instead of bad programs and punishment

a.     Across all types of personal crimes, victimization rates are significantly higher for individuals living in low-income households, as shown in figure 2. In 2008, the latest year for which data are available, the victimization rate for all personal crimes among individuals with family incomes of less than $15,000 was over three times the rate of those with family incomes of $75,000 or more (DOJ 2010a). The most prevalent crime for low-income victims was assault, followed closely by acts of attempted violence, at 33 victims and 28 victims per 1,000 residents, respectively. For those in the higher-income bracket, these rates were significantly lower at only 11 victims and 9 victims per 1,000 residents, respectively.

b.     Because crime tends to concentrate in disadvantaged areas, low-income individuals living in these communities are even more likely to be victims. Notably, evidence from the Moving to Opportunity program—a multiyear federal research demonstration project that combined rental assistance with housing counseling to help families with very low incomes move from areas with a high concentration of poverty—suggests that moving into a less-poor neighborhood significantly reduces child criminal victimization rates. In particular, children of families that moved as a result of receiving both a housing voucher to move to a new location and counseling assistance experienced personal crime victimization rates that were 13 percentage points lower than those who did not receive any voucher or assistance (Katz, Kling, and Liebman 2000). 

c.     Victims of personal crimes face both tangible costs, including medical costs, lost earnings, and costs related to victim assistance programs, and intangible costs, such as pain, suffering, and lost quality of life (Miller, Cohen, and Wiersama 1996). There are also public health consequences to crime victimization. Since homicide rates are so high for young African American men, men in this demographic group lose more years of life before age sixty-five to homicide than they do to heart disease, which is the nation’s overall leading killer (Heller et al. 2013).

d.     This high risk of imprisonment translates into a higher chance of being in prison than of being employed. For African American men in general, it translates into a higher chance of spending time in prison than of graduating with a four-year college degree (Pettit 2012; Pettit and Western 2004).

1.     Prison is as bad as you can imagine, and possibly more so

2.     Freudenberg, N. J Urban Health (2001) 78: 214.

https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.2.214

3.     Bad prison

4.     Google scholar- prisons

5.     This review examined the interactions between the correctional system and the health of urban populations. Cities have more poor people, more people of color, and higher crime rates than suburban and rural areas; thus, urban populations are overrepresented in the nation's jails and prisons. As a result, US incarceration policies and programs have a disproportionate impact on urban communities, especially black and Latino ones. Health conditions that are overrepresented in incarcerated populations include substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other infectius diseases, perpetration and victimization by violence, mental illness, chronic disease, and reproductive health problems. Correctional systems have direct and indirect effects on health. Indirectly, they influence family structure, economic opportunities, political participation, and normative community values on sex, drugs, and violence. Current correctional policies also divert resources from other social needs. Correctional systems can have a direct effect on the health of urban populations by offering health care and health promotion in jails and prisons, by linking inmates to community services after release, and by assisting in the process of community reintegration. Specific recommendations for action and reseach to reduce the adverse health and social consequences of current incarceration policies are offered.

1.     The Issue

2.     K

3.     Bad prison conditions

4.     Conditions in prion

5.     Prison conditions should not be an additional punishment. The prison sentence is the sanction: it holds an individual accountable for their actions and protects society. It deprives someone of their liberty and impacts on certain other rights, such as freedom of movement, which are the inevitable consequences of imprisonment, but people in prison retain their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

6.     However, in reality prisons often do not meet even the most basic of standards, and many prison staff consider harsh treatment to be a legitimate way to deal with inmates.

7.     Living conditions in a prison are among the chief factors determining a prisoner’s self-esteem and dignity. Prisoners who experience humane detention conditions will be more willing and able to respond to rehabilitative programs. Those who experience punitive conditions and mistreatment on the other hand are likely to return to society psychologically shattered and in poor or worse state of physical and mental health than when they entered. Humane prison conditions also reduce the prevalence of violence in prisons.

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Annotations

Annotations WP4

1.     What’s wrong with the prison system

2.     Leopold, Nathan. "What is Wrong with the Prison System," Nebraska Law Review vol. 45, no. 1 (January 1966): p. 33-57.

3.     Google scholar: (rehabilitation in the prison system)

4.     Source talks about the flaws of the prison system, and rehabilitation in them.

5.     Quotes:

a.     There is, first of all, the obvious fact that when a man is put in prison he cannot, for the period of his incarceration, commit further crimes. Even this is not completely true. Murders are committed in prison; so are thefts. Arson is committed in nearly every prison riot; sex crime runs rampant in many prisons. But, by and large, it is certainly true that incarceration sharply reduces the crime committing potential of the prisoner. But surely this is not all we expect of our prisons. Sentences run out; prisoners are paroled; the median time served in prison is only about three years. The protection afforded society by the temporary seclusion of the criminal surely does not justify the enormous expense of prisons.

b.     One of the most important elements tending to foster rehabilitation is the maintenance of family ties, of peer group relations, of a sense of belonging. Most prisons make it totally impossible for the inmate to maintain relationships with those outside. Visits are strictly limited; letters are permitted only to selected, approved individuals, and then only weekly, biweekly, or even monthly. A man is sent to prison in his late teens or early twenties. His peer group moves ahead in the social scale. His friends enter business, marry, have children. The prisoner is entirely cut off from development of any kind. When he is released, seven or eight years later, his erstwhile friends have progressed beyond him; they have become strangers. He no longer has an in-group; he belongs nowhere. Imprisonment, in a word, maximizes social severance. And social severance works against rehabilitation. Work, in prison, if indeed work exists at all, tends to be uninteresting, soul-deadening drudgery, with no application to modern methods of manufacturing. In one prison a large group of prisoners was kept occupied for months moving a large pile of sand from one side of the prison yard to the other in worn-out roasting pans from the kitchen. Once the pile was moved, the prisoners moved it back again to where it had originally been. This type of task is not conducive to rehabilitation. Discipline in prison is maintained by force, fear, and threats. More locks, more bars, more machine guns are the universal answer to every problem. This may reduce the number of riots and exact a surly, superficial obedience to rules; it certainly does not tend to rehabilitate.

1.     Incarceration and stratification

2.     Wakefield S. 2007. The consequences of incarceration for parents and children. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. Minn.

3.     Google Scholar (the prison system and rehabilitation)

4.     Education and the Labor Market

5.     Mass incarceration causes inequality in the labor market by removing potential workers, eroding the already shaky job skills of the incarcerated, and stigmatizing the formerly incarcerated (Western et al. 2002). At the aggregate level, incarceration masks inequality by artificially reducing group-specific unemployment rates among the nonincarcerated population (Western & Beckett 1999, Pager 2009). Much of the apparent narrowing of the racial gap in wages among young men in the 1990s, for example, appears to be the result of transferring low-earning African Americans from the labor market to the prison rather than an overall improvement in African American earnings. Western (2006) estimates that racial disparities in incarceration led analysts to understate disparities in relative economic status by about 45% (pp. 98–102), concluding that the labor market expansion in the 1990s had very little effect on the prospects of young men without college educations (Western & Pettit 2005).

6.     Those who are undereducated and ill-prepared for the labor market are more likely to end up in prison (Arum & Beattie 1999, Arum & LaFree 2008, Hirschfield 2008). Although most inmates were employed at the time of their arrest (U.S. Dep. Justice 2004), the vast majority were working in low-paying and low-quality jobs. Incarceration further reduces the employment prospects for an already vulnerable population with few job skills and low educational attainment (Pettit & Western 2004) by creating gaps in inmate employment histories. Participation in vocational and educational training while incarcerated is low and declining, so time spent in prison rarely improves these deficits (Travis & Visher 2005). Incarceration also removes inmates from the important social networks that might assist them in finding work, while simultaneously strengthening their ties to others with similarly dismal prospects (Hagan 1993). Finally, the felony conviction that accompanies incarceration carries a formidable and virtually indelible legal stigma.

7.     Incarceration thus pushes the incarcerated out of the labor market (Freeman 1992), reduces the number of weeks worked per year (Raphael 2007), and confines former inmates to low-paying and low-status jobs. Estimates of the individual-level wage penalty of incarceration range from 10–30% (Geller et al. 2006, Pettit & Lyons 2007, Pettit & Western 2004, Waldfogel 1994, Western 2002). This prison penalty significantly exceeds that associated with arrest (Grogger 1995) or conviction (Nagin & Waldfogel 1995), although the length of incarceration does not appear to exert a strong effect on wages (Kling 2006). Moreover, the effects of incarceration on wages and earnings vary appreciably by race. Western (2006, p. 127) estimates an aggregate lifetime earnings loss of about 1% for white men, relative to 2.1% for Latino males and 4.0% for African American males. Although this wage penalty dissipates over time, it tends to endure the longest for African American males (Pettit & Lyons 2007).

8.     In a series of experimental audit studies, Pager (2003, 2009) has demonstrated significant labor market discrimination against ex-inmates. As with research on wage penalties, her results also reveal a greater penalty of incarceration for African American ex-inmates relative to white ex-inmates. In her Milwaukee audit study (Pager 2003), approximately 34% of white testers without criminal records received callbacks from employers, relative to 17% of white testers with records. For African Americans, however, the corresponding percentages were only 14% and 5%.

9.     Although the labor market consequences of a felony conviction are now well-established (see also Stoll & Bushway 2008), the remedy for such consequences is far from clear. African Americans appear to suffer more from a felony conviction (Pager 2009, Pager & Quillian 2005), and the combined effects of racial discrimination and discrimination on the basis of a criminal record can all but disqualify African American men with criminal records from employment. One strategy for reducing these inequalities involves limiting employer access to criminal history information, although some caution that African Americans without criminal records might be worse off under such “ban the box” provisions. In the absence of conviction information, this argument goes, they may be subject to greater statistical discrimination by employers who make assumptions about criminality based on racial characteristics (Blumstein & Nakamura 2009, Freeman 2008, Pager 2009). To date, however, such hypotheses remain untested.

1.     What accounts for the employment consequences of incarceration? Pager (2009)offers multiple interpretations for the low wages and high unemployment among former inmates: selection (those who go to prison would not find work even in the absence of incarceration), transformation (prison changes inmates and makes them less employable), and reverse credentialing (prison conveys a stigma, apart from any real change on the part of inmates). There is evidence for all three mechanisms. First, in addition to very little schooling and spotty work histories, inmates also have high rates of mental illness, significant substance abuse problems, and low levels of familial and social support (U.S. Dep. Justice 2004, Uggen et al. 2005). All these characteristics may combine to make former inmates unattractive to employers, even in the absence of a felony conviction or time served. Second, in addition to the time spent away from the labor market, the values and attitudes that govern adjustment in prison are unlikely to translate well to the formal labor market (e.g., Irwin & Cressey 1962). Finally, barriers to employment are legally codified (for example, through laws barring ex-felons from working in health care) (Samuels & Mukamal 2004), with background checks ensuring that former inmates put their “worst foot forward” when applying for jobs (see Chiricos et al. 2007).

1.     The new untouchables: crime, punishment and race in America

2.     Loury, Glenn C. "The new untouchables: crime, punishment and race in          America." UN Chronicle, Sept. 2007, p. 53+. Academic OneFile, Accessed 6 Apr. 2018.

3.     Discusses both racial disparities and rehabilitation 

4.     Incarceration keeps them away from us. The sociologist David Garland writes: "The prison is used today as a kind of reservation, a quarantine zone in which purportedly dangerous individuals are segregated in the name of public safety." This situation is morally problematic in the extreme. We Americans have chosen to invest in human punishment, but not in human development. Our society creates crime-promoting conditions in our sprawling urban ghettos, and then acts out rituals of punishment against them as some awful form of human sacrifice. We law-abiding, middle-class Americans have, through our elected representatives, made decisions about social policy that benefit us, created from a system of suffering, rooted in State violence.

5.     This situation raises a moral problem that we Americans cannot avoid. We cannot pretend that there are more important problems in our society--unless we are also prepared to say that we have turned our backs on the ideal of equality for all citizens and abandoned the principles of justice. We ought to be asking ourselves the fundamental question: What are our obligations to our fellow citizens--even those who break our laws?’

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Guided invention

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Jairus Edwards Writing Plan & Thesis

Friday, March 30: Writing Plan Complete

Sunday, April 1: Completed Thesis

Monday, April 2: Bring in a Printed copy of the thesis

Tuesday, April 3: Complete Introduction & Find 1 source

Wednesday, April 4: Find 2 more sources

Saturday, April 7: Begin body paragraph 1 & find 1 additional source

Tuesday, April 9: Begin body paragraph 2 & find the 2nd additional source

Thursday, April 11: Begin body paragraph 3 & find the 3rd additional source

Sunday, April 15: Have 75% of paper done

Tuesday, April 17: Have 85% of paper done

Thursday, April 19: Have completed rough draft

Tuesday, April 23: Edit 1st half

Thursday, April 26: Edit 2nd half

Friday, Aril 27: Paper due

 Provisional Thesis:

Currently, America faces social issues with minorities in the prison system. Considering the ways the government has addressed the concerns of the prison system, there’s an approach that would better this system of oppression.

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Peer Review 

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Rough Plan

Rough Plan:

BP 1.

1.     Purpose: This paragraph will introduce the laws put in place explaining how they affect black men. Using context from ACLU- A Model Act For Regulating The Use Of Wearable Body Cameras By Law Enforcement. To explore the

BP 2.

2.     Purpose: This paragraph will discuss the laws affecting men and their normal civil liberties, in general, transitioning to why the body camera laws don’t support equal rights. Using context from the ACLU

BP 3.

3.     Purpose: This paragraph will discuss the laws affecting men in general and why the body camera laws don’t support equal rights. Using context from Newsweekly.

BP 4.

4.     Purpose: This paragraph will expand on how those body camera laws mentioned in the previous paragraph effect on black people, with context from Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect.  

BP 5.

5.      Purpose: This paragraph will connect the intersectional identity of being a black male when regarding officers and their body camera rules.

BP 6.

6.     Purpose: This paragraph will contrast the rules and offer an opinion arguing my point and I explain why it's flawed. Purposed to be a rebuttal

BP 7.

7.     Purpose: This paragraph will give more insight on current issues regarding body camera rules, by giving examples that have recently occurred in today’s society.

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Annotations

1.     Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect

2.     Voigt, Rob et al. “Language from Police Body Camera Footage Shows Racial Disparities

in Officer Respect.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114.25 (2017): 6521–6526. PMC. Web. 28 Feb. 2018.

3.     USC Libraries Search, “Police body camera footage”

4.     “Using footage from body-worn cameras, we analyze the respectfulness of police officer language toward white and black community members during routine traffic stops. We develop computational linguistic methods that extract levels of respect automatically from transcripts, informed by a thin-slicing study of participant ratings of officer utterances. We find that officers speak with consistently less respect toward black versus white community members, even after controlling for the race of the officer, the severity of the infraction, the location of the stop, and the outcome of the stop. Such disparities in common, everyday interactions between police and the communities they serve have important implications for procedural justice and the building of police–community trust.”

5.     Quotes:

a.     “Our dataset consists of transcribed body camera footage from vehicle stops of white and black community members conducted by the Oakland Police Department during the month of April 2014. We examined 981 stops of black (N = 682) and white (N = 299) drivers from this period, 68.1% of the 1,440 stops of white and black drivers in this period. These 981 stops were conducted by 245 different officers (see SI Appendix, Data Sampling Process for inclusion criteria). Per Oakland Police Department policy, officers turn on their cameras before making contact with the driver and record for the duration of the stop. From the 183 h of footage in these interactions, we obtain 36,738 usable officer utterances for our analysis.”

b.     We address this question by analyzing officers’ language during vehicle stops of white and black community members. Although many factors may shape these interactions, an officer’s words are undoubtedly critical: Through them, the officer can communicate respect and understanding of a citizen’s perspective, or contempt and disregard for their voice. Furthermore, the language of those in positions of institutional power (police officers, judges, work superiors) has greater influence over the course of the interaction than the language used by those with less power (12–16). Measuring officer language thus provides a quantitative lens on one key aspect of the quality or tone of police–community interactions, and offers new opportunities for advancing police training. (Contrast)

1.     ACLU- A MODEL ACT FOR REGULATING THE USE OF WEARABLE BODY CAMERAS BY LAW ENFORCEMENT

2.     “A Model Act for Regulating the Use of Wearable Body Cameras by Law

Enforcement.” Edited by ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/other/model-act-regulating-use-wearable-body-cameras-law-enforcement.

3.      Google Scholar

4.     The actual laws/regulations put in place regarding body cameras for officers

 a.     (g) Body cameras shall not be used to gather intelligence information based on First Amendment protected speech, associations, or religion, or to record activity that is unrelated to a response to a call for service or a law enforcement or investigative encounter between a law enforcement officer and a member of the public.

b.     (i) Body camera video footage shall be retained by the law enforcement agency that employs the officer whose camera captured the footage, or an authorized agent thereof, for six (6) months from the date it was recorded, after which time such footage shall be permanently deleted.

                                                        i.     (1) During the six(6) month retention period, the following persons shall have the right to inspect the body camera footage:

c.     (A) Any person who is a subject of body camera video footage, and/or their designated legal counsel; (B) A parent of a minor subject of body camera video footage, and/or their designated legal counsel; (C) The spouse, next of kin or legally authorized designee of a deceased subject of body camera video footage, and/or their designated legal counsel; (D) A law enforcement officer whose body camera recorded the video footage, and/or their designated legal counsel, subject to the limitations and restrictions in this Act; (E) The superior officer of a law enforcement officer whose body camera recorded the video footage, subject to the limitations and restrictions in this Act; and (F) Any defense counsel who claims, pursuant to a written affidavit, to have a reasonable basis for believing a video may contain evidence that exculpates a client.

d.     (2) The right to inspect subject to subsection (i)(1) shall not include the right to possess a copy of the body camera video footage, unless the release of the body camera footage is otherwise authorized by this Act or by another applicable law.

e.     (3) When a body camera fails to capture some or all of the audio or video of an incident due to malfunction, displacement of camera, or any other cause, any audio or video footage that is captured shall be treated the same as any other body camera audio or video footage under the law.

                                                        i.     (j) Notwithstanding the retention and deletion requirements in subsection (i):

f.      (1) Video footage shall be automatically retained for no less than three (3) years if the video footage captures an interaction or event involving:

g.     (A) Any use of force; or

h.     (B) An encounter about which a complaint has been registered by a subject of the video footage.

i.      (2) Body camera video footage shall also be retained for no less than three (3) years if a longer retention period is voluntarily requested by:

                                                        i.     (A) The law enforcement officer whose body camera recorded the video footage, if that officer reasonably asserts the video footage has evidentiary or exculpatory value; (B) Any law enforcement officer who is a subject of the video footage, if that officer reasonably asserts the video footage has evidentiary or exculpatory value; (C) Any superior officer of a law enforcement officer whose body camera recorded the video footage or who is a subject of the video footage, if that superior officer reasonably asserts the video footage has evidentiary or exculpatory value; (D) Any law enforcement officer, if the video footage is being retained solely and exclusively for police training purposes; (E) Any member of the public who is a subject of the video footage; (F) Any parent or legal guardian of a minor who is a subject of the video footage; or (G) A deceased subject’s spouse, next of kin, or legally authorized designee.

j.      (k) To effectuate subsections (j)(2)(E), (j)(2)(F) and (j)(2)(G), any member of the public who is a subject of video footage, the parent or legal guardian of a minor who is a subject of the video footage, or a deceased subject’s next of kin or legally authorized designee, shall be permitted to review the specific video footage in question in order to make a determination as to whether they will voluntarily request it be subjected to a three (3) year retention period.

k.     (l) All video footage of an interaction or event captured by a body camera, if that interaction or event is identified with reasonable specificity and requested by a member of the public, shall be provided to the person or entity making the request in accordance with the procedures for requesting and providing government records set forth in the [NAME OF STATE OPEN RECORDS ACT/FOIA LAW].

1.     Police body cameras can threaten civil rights of black and brown people, new report says- Newsweekly

2.     Saul, Joshua. “Police Body Cameras Can Threaten Civil Rights of Black and Brown

People, New Report Says.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 14 Nov. 2017, www.newsweek.com/police-body-camera-incident-report-memory-civil-rights-minority-711584.

3.     Google; “how police body cameras affect citizen rights”

4.     The article discusses how police body cameras threaten the rights of black people. (How the law is flawed

5.     Quotes

a.     “Most of those departments—55, or almost 80 percent—allow officers to view their footage whenever they want.”

b.     “The Leadership Conference report advises that police departments institute a “clean reporting” policy, under which officers write an initial incident report before reviewing any footage. Only afterward would they watch the footage and write a second, supplementary report.”

c.     “Unrestricted footage review places civil rights at risk and undermines the goals of transparency and accountability,” said Vanita Gupta, former head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and current head of the Leadership Conference, in the report’s introduction.

d.     “Because an officer’s memory of an event may be altered by watching body camera footage, doing so will likely alter what officers write in their reports. That, in turn, can make it more difficult for investigators or courts to assess whether the officer’s actions were reasonable based on what he or she perceived at the time of the incident, states the report, “The Illusion of Accuracy: How Body-Worn Camera Footage Can Distort Evidence.”

e.      

[jairused]

Fact:

California (AB 69) (2015) requires police departments to consider certain best practices when developing rules for downloading and storing body-worn camera data. Practices to consider include: establishing protocols and temporal standards for downloading data, developing measures to prevent misuse or tampering of the data, categorizing the nature of incidents at the time of download and stating the length of time the data must be stored. The guidelines recommend storing data from “non-evidentiary incidents” for 60 days and a minimum of two years in situations where force is used, an arrest is made, or where a complaint has been made against an officer or agency. Storage procedures should ensure evidentiary chains of custody are preserved, records of access and deletion of data are retained permanently and identify where body camera data should be stored. It also requires certain elements to be considered if third-party data storage vendors are used. In addition, the law requires police departments to retain ownership of body cameras, which shall not be accessed or released for any unauthorized purpose, and are explicitly prohibited from being uploaded onto public and social media Internet Web sites.

California (AB 93) (2015) appropriates $10 million to the Board of State and Community Corrections to administer grants that strengthen police-community relations, including grants to address any one time body-worn camera program costs.

California (SB 424) (2015) provides that provisions prohibiting eavesdropping and recording or intercepting certain communications do not prohibit officers from using or operating body-worn cameras.

California (SB 85) (2015) requires the California Highway Patrol, on or before Jan. 1, 2016, to develop a plan for implementing a body-worn camera pilot program. The pilot program shall explore: which officers should be assigned to wear a body  camera and the circumstances under which the cameras should be worn, the minimum specifications for body-worn cameras, the practicality of an officer using a privately owned body camera, the best locations on the officer's body where the camera should be worn, best practices for officers to notify members of the public that they are being recorded, who should retain body camera data and how they should do it, best practices for officer review of recorded body-worn camera data and body-worn camera data’s use for training.

California (AB 1953) (2016) requires police departments that are establishing body camera policies and procedures to consider enumerated best practices.

Best practices include (1) designating a person responsible for downloading the recorded data from the body-worn camera. (If the storage system does not have automatic downloading capability, the officer's supervisor should take immediate physical custody of the camera and be responsible for downloading the data in the case of an incident involving the use of force by an officer, an officer-involved shooting, or other serious incident.) (2)  Establishing procedures for when data should be downloaded and how it should be tagged and categorized. (3) Establish specific measures to prevent data tampering, deleting, and copying, including prohibiting the unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution of body-worn camera data. (4) Specifically state the length of time that recorded data is to be stored. Non-evidentiary data should be retained for a minimum of 60 days, after which it may be erased, destroyed, or recycled. An agency may keep data for more than 60 days to have it available in case of a civilian complaint and to preserve transparency. Body camera data should be kept for two years if: it involves use of force by a peace officer or an officer-involved shooting, the recording is of an incident that leads to the detention or arrest of an individual; or the recording is relevant to a formal or informal complaint against a law enforcement officer or a law enforcement agency. If evidence that may be relevant to a criminal prosecution is obtained from a recording made by a body-worn camera under this section, the law enforcement agency should retain the recording for any time relevant to a criminal prosecution. (5) Records or logs of access and deletion of data from body-worn cameras should be retained permanently. (6) Specify where the body-worn camera data will be stored. (7) If using a third-party vendor to manage the data storage system, consider using a reputable third-party vendor. Do this by entering into contracts that govern the vendor relationship and protect the agency's data, using a system that prevents data tampering and unauthorized access and has a reliable method for automatically backing up data for storage.

Requires that all body-worn camera data be the property of a law enforcement agency. Data cannot be used for personal use and prohibits data from being uploaded onto public and social media internet websites. Sanctions must be included for violations. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to limit the public's right to access recorded data under the California Public Records Act.

California (AB 459) (2017) specifies that the California Public Records Act does not require disclosure of a video or audio recording that was created during the commission or investigation of the crime of rape, incest, sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse that depicts the face, intimate body part, or voice of a victim of the incident depicted in the recording. The law also requires a law enforcement agency to justify withholding such a video or audio recording by demonstrating that the public interest served by not disclosing the recording clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the recording. The law authorizes a victim who is a subject of such a recording to be permitted to inspect the recording and to obtain a copy of the recording

  Ideas:

Being that it’s not required for all officers to wear a body camera is partial to why it negatively affects African American men

Since its optional those races cops can do as they please with those with the lesser foot.

When officers are forced to where body cameras, they have to follow the rules because they’re being recorded and the chance that them being unprofessional is less likely because they want to keep their jobs.

The rule that they are allowed to dispose of them if they please are also negatively affecting African American men

Having that law also sets up the ‘victim’ to be the officers word over theirs, and if they are dead there’s no way one can find out the truth

Every person is innocent until proven guilty, yet if the officers were guilty and the proof of it is on the video that they can delete, they’re going to delete it and then it’s not a fair case

 “Because an officer’s memory of an event may be altered by watching body camera footage, doing so will likely alter what officers write in their reports. That, in turn, can make it more difficult for investigators or courts to assess whether the officer’s actions were reasonable based on what he or she perceived at the time of the incident, states the report, “The Illusion of Accuracy: How Body-Worn Camera Footage Can Distort Evidence.”

 Thesis:

Although there isn’t a strict law regarding police officers wearing body cameras, the rules in place for them negatively affect men of color because the rules consider the officer instead of considering both parties equally.  

[jairused]

Weekly response 6

We can consider non-physical spaces like careers because although it’s not physical its the environment that makes it a kind of space. Careers can be inclusive and exclusive of people easily. Whether someone is qualified enough for the position or not it makes a space inclusive or not.  People might have mental/physical attributes that contribute to their inclusive/exclusive ways in their career. As a performing artist, auditions are my life. My career goals require me to audition for just about everything I have to do. Recently I auditioned for West side story, which is being put on by USC. I, although consider myself a performing artist, I am a singer first. Being a singer is my identity, and it is what was put on my audition form. For the audition, however, I had to dance...a lot. This audition space I felt excluded as a singer because the majority of the auditioning people were dancers. With that being said when it came to dancing I was left behind and it was hard to keep up. Physically the space, in fact, was in a dance studio, so I was all around at a disadvantage. During the process, it was even noted by the choreographer that it would be taken slowly for those non-dancing majors. This wasn't the case. I felt excluded because I felt they really didn't try to include the non-dancers. The space could have been more inclusive if it was an even balance between dancers and non-dancers. Or even if they took it step by step for non-dancers with less dance terminology that I could understand.  

[jairused]

A Somerville Space

Jairus Edwards

Eli Dunn

Writing 150

February 21, 2018

        At the University of Southern California, 5.7% of the student population identify as Black/African American, being the smallest demographic at USC. Minority students are given the opportunity to apply to live on special interest floors, which are for students who want to live with others with a common race, religion, or interest. USC offers special interest communities for those who identify as Black/African American, Hispanic, Asian Pacific Islanders, Muslim, LGBTQ, women in science and engineering, and performing and creative arts and more. Although some floors look the same, architecture-wise, space is different and holds a different experience for each student. The African Black/African American floor, also known as Somerville, provides a space for young black men and women transitioning into the university to be their true selves. In this space, their culture is not only tolerated but celebrated. Their strengths are further developed, and they are trained on how to explain their cultural passions and ideas to people who are not familiar with them, a skill they will need throughout life. The floor is a small piece of the university’s goal to be more diverse collectively, and because so, is something small that works towards a goal bigger than any of its inhabitants individually. As a result of the cultivation of having a space that helps develop African American freshman within its members and the provision of a safe space, the Somerville housing project is inclusive of black students.

        Somerville is located on the 5th floor in Flour Tower, and like the other floors in Flour Tower is built with four 8 person suites and two single rooms. Each suite has its own double bathroom and common area, and each floor has a study room. Somerville Place was created “to enhance the experience of personal efficacy, promote intellectual development, provide opportunities for leadership and maintain a welcoming environment for successful transition African American students into the USC community” (Dr. Roz).  The Somerville space is a place where African American Students are able to have space specifically for them. It allows them space where they can experience living and working with other African American freshmen. Whereas they might not have this opportunity living somewhere else because as the smallest minority group on the large 45,500 students on campus, this opportunity is unique and individualized. African American students at USC don’t always have the opportunity to relate to someone during classes because often times they are the only African American in the class.  

        Being African American at a predominantly white institution there’s the chance that one can feel overwhelmed because it can be hard to relate to someone fully because of a cultural barrier.  This is why places like Somerville exist, to have space where students can repress and distress and relate to other African American students. Space allows a safe space for students to be themselves, whereas they might not be able to in the school setting. Living with seven other students, while living on Somerville, it gives its residents a sense of community specifically for African American students. Being able to converse freely with others going through the same challenges. Somerville allows a space for its residents to feel inclusive on a deeper level. Due to the support from other Somerville scholars, they allow this inclusiveness.

                Somerville is a small community of African Americans that is not always there in student’s day to day classes. In class African, American students may have to go an extra mile because of race, or they might not be able to speak how they want to or express themselves like they would have in a predominately Black community. This is why places like Somerville exist, a place where those African American students don’t have to worry about what other races might think of them. They can relax and know there’s a community that’s just like them. Somerville even is a space where guidance from another African American can be obtained. Somerville has not only an African American residential advisor but also two faculty advisors who are also African American. This allows its residents to have guidance from a like-minded source and an advisor with they’re the best interest at hand.

Somerville Place, named after John Alexander Somerville and his wife Vada Somerville, has a history of being a place for African American students with goals of hard work and determination. John Somerville, the first African American to enroll in the USC School of Dentistry, struggled with being a black student at a predominantly white institution. He was demanded by his peers to leave due to his race. This is one of the reasons why Somerville Place was made, so there’d always be a black community to support other black students. Although the idea of Somerville Place is to be a place for African American students, there are students of other ethnicities than black that live on the floor. This makes Somerville open to all races, but space is catered to the African American student, which is why generally other races are not on the floor. The floor’s cultural conditions of liking the same types of music, food, and having a mutual and cultural understanding have made it feel like home for these inhabitants.  

        Somerville welcomes all even though the space is created for African American students. Space is not intended to shut out the USC community, but to help its diversity to grow. The floor is a community, and that community allows the connections needed to be successful. Although Somerville is open to all to come and visit many non-African-American students don’t interact with Somerville. Sometimes, however students from the Hispanic floor, which is located on the 6th floor of Flour tower go to the 5th floor to socialize. These students help the space grow because they too can relate to being a minority.  There is a significant common ground that allows social barriers to be broken.

Compared to other African American students on campus who know about Somerville, those students are willingly on Somerville. They know its history and its legacy, and their knowledge added to the resident’s knowledge of Somerville creates a community of knowledge, and gives African Americans the space they need to socially strive with other Black/African American. The other African American students know they are always on Somerville, but if someone of another race were to just show up it be confusing and its residents would proceed with caution because not everyone understands the space is for destressing.

The majority of the wider community doesn’t know about Somerville which is why it’s important to spread the word about Somerville. If more African American students knew about Somerville prior to doing their housing application there wouldn’t be an extra suit of non-Black students.  Many of the African American students don’t find out about Somerville until they are already here. If more students knew about Somerville before they came there would be a higher success rate. “Several recent studies at Ohio State…found, such relationships [roommates of a different race] are more stressful and more likely to break up than same-race pairings.” They would have more success emotionally and mentally because they would have a roommate that had a better understanding of how each other work culturally. Having a roommate with a similar or the same culture allows an easier living adjustment because one doesn’t have to readjust completely to how someone else lives. Having a comfortable home away from home makes life easier.  

The Somerville experience is one for African American freshman that allows an inclusive environment for them that is crucial to their success. Somerville, a safe place that allows its residents to enjoy their living conditions and to be surrounded by like-minded people. Being surrounded by others with similar cultural experiences and similar day to day challenges, Somerville gives them a place to express their true selves. They can grow with others just like them and this is important during the college years. It helps their academic, social, and emotional success, which is the goal for most. Somerville although includes everyone, because all are welcomed, its specifically includes the African American community in a way the university cannot.  

word count:1375

[jairused]

ROUGH ROUGH PLAN

Thesis: The shrine appropriates the legacy of the Al Malaikah Temple

Topic Sentence: Shrine Owes the Temple a space to show ‘respect’

Ex: The shrine now brings in thousands of people during every event and owes the Mystics a chance to expand because they were the original inhabitants more than once a year

Analysis: There are way more events at the shrine compared to the one event the original inhabitants have.

 Purpose: introduce the reader to the argument

Topic sentence: current structure doesn’t support the Malaikah

Ex:

What is now a stage and seat lights cameras

Security at every door

Must have pass/ticket to get in

The Malaika used the shrine for nurturing youth back to health but the structure of today doesn't support that

Purpose: explaining the architecture and how it functions that help support my thesis  

[jairused]

Weekly response 5

On Wednesday, I chose to only use gender neutral bathrooms. There aren’t as many gender-neutral bathrooms as normal bathrooms around campus. When I had to use the restroom, I went to the only gender-neutral bathrooms I knew; the ones in the lobby of the residential buildings. I took away that it was a lot of work to not only find the gender-neutral bathrooms but also so much more time-consuming. Taking the extra time just to go to the bathroom when everyone else can just walk down the hall isn’t fair. I expected to have to go the bathroom more, so I’d have to travel far, but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t have to use the bathroom as much and was lucky enough when I did I was in a building where there was one. I thought there would be more because I thought USC would just have more gender-neutral bathrooms. I think USC can make more gender-neutral bathrooms, or make them all gender neutral. My high school which was just fished its renovation now has all gender-neutral bathroom, and it works. It allows a space for everyone to use the bathroom, and have their own private space for it. Each bathroom has several induvial stalls and sinks, much like a female bathroom, but it’s for everyone. USC could adopt this idea for all the bathrooms so everyone can use the bathroom. Having to walk to a different building when there could be one for everyone in the building you’re in is so much more unnecessary work. USC could do better although they have started in the right direction with having gender-neutral bathrooms, more should be implemented.  

[jairused]

Thesis WP2

The Bing Theatre, although can be a great place for many types of large events, really is intended for those interested, those who assist, and those who participate in the performing arts because the theatre's architecture and items used in the theatre are catered towards those of the performing arts.

[jairused]

Fact/Idea List

Space: Bing Theatre

Facts:

551 capacities

           cushioned folding seats  

one level

a large stage

12ft wide-20ft tall load-in doors

ramps outside for wheelchair accessibility

large doors

a ticket office

light rails above the stage

tech/sound booth

crew members, student assistants

men and women’s dressing rooms under the stage

           women: 18 mirrors

           men: 12 mirrors

   contains make-up lights and costume rack

single occupancy dressing room stage right

adjoining restrooms with showers, sinks, and toilets

curtain

headset communication

speakers and amplifiers

microphones (wireless and handheld)

the orchestra pit  

dimmed lights (controlled)

Two desk areas

generally quiet

 Ideas:

The stage is there for performing purposes, which is why there are 500 seats

All the technical aspects suggest they are amplifying someone or something

The controlled dimmed lights suggest that people sitting will be in the dark

The curtain suggests they are keeping something hidden

The cushion folded chairs suggest that people will be sitting for a while and that people need to walk through the aisles with ease.

The large stage suggests its holding either a lot of people or a large set

Ticket office suggest they are selling tickets

Desk areas suggest people working behind the des or selling something (concessions)

Ramps so wheelchairs are able to get to the stage

Headsets suggest communication between people

Orchestra pit suggest music playing and people occupying that space

Load-in doors suggest large objects being moved into the building

Dressing rooms suggest people are changing for a show

the quietness suggest listening going