On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, my social justice group and I walk
ed to LREI where we attended our first Speaker Series Event. This was our second field work so far. In this event the topic of Mass Incarceration was discussed. Now, I know this isn’t our exact topic, but we figured there would be no harm done in attending, especially considering all the information we would learn. We learned quite a lot. Did you know that although Americans are only 5% of Earth’s population, we make up 25% of its incarcerated. That is insane! When you compare the United States to countries like China or Russia, we aren’t really all that big. And yet, out of all the countries in the world combined (and trust me there are a lot), we make up 25% of the world’s incarcerated. Anyway, the primary speaker was Mr. Greenburger, a parent at Little Red and founder of the Greenburger center. The Greenburger center is a non-profit organization that looks to change the way that the justice system operates while at the same time they also look for alternative solutions for sending those mentally challenged to prisons. Another fact that we learned was that 33% of American citizens have criminal records, which limits what they can do once they get out. Some jobs won’t accept their applications, and it really leaves a nasty mark on you. We learned so much in this fieldwork. It was really eye-opening for us, as we learned how wrong our justice system really is.
