Interview with a Prison Social Worker aka Caity Liechty

PREMISE: I thought I should ask my daughter Caity about her experiences with female prisoners because this is a group of people that I most likely will have little if any interactions with, but still need to be understood. Now when I hear about things to do with prisons, with the rights of prisoners, the prison administration, I look at it with different eyes.


Preconceived thoughts about prisoners:
-scary
-meaner, more hostile less willing to work with
-thought she would have a hard time not letting the crime define them

All the women she works with are considered inpatient - they MUST have counseling and therapy. They are all in there for very serious crimes, they have all been and a lot currently are drug addicts, they all came from a pretty harsh life. Some had psychotic breaks while committing their crimes and are extremely remorseful, others could not care less about the crime they committed. There are some she has an affection for, and others that she wishes she did not have to work with.

Biggest lesson: This has shown her that everyone has inherent worth - no one wants to be defined by there mistake. To be held back from something that they did 20 years ago and to not be allowed to change is cruel

BUT, some have not changed, and some of the crimes are pretty awful

Surprised: that they all had/have drug problems

All are white + 2 hispanics (20 total) - thought there would be more diversity, they come from all over, not just from Utah

Surprised by the voices they all hear, even while on meds - they struggle with it every day:(

Surprised at how low functioning they are - middle school literacy and mental capacity

MY THOUGHTS: I was speaking with Caity again last night, and she was telling me about some changes that are happening at the prison, and they are not positive changes. The ONLY way for more positive things to happen is if the prisoners themselves write to ACLU and tell them what's happening. The men write, because they have this assertiveness about them that the women do not. We then talked about how if, as taxpayers, you hear that money is going towards programs at the prison but is being cut from schools, of course you're going to be mad and non-supportive. But because she is there and she sees how bad it is ( not that she thinks they need all these wonderful things - space is a big problem and will soon be affecting therapy/counseling in a big way) she looks at things in a different way, as do I.  It's like taking a Stats class, learning how things can be skewed to fit the story, and then watching a news broadcast, and questioning every statistic they give, because how do we really know where/how they got their data!

By having this alternate view, it makes it easier to be less quick to judge. I think this is true in every case we've learned about this semester!