Name: Dorsey Smith

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Mass Incarceration in the U.S.

Date of Fieldwork: February 15, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Prison Law-Alison Hardy

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

Alison Hardy works at prison law as a senior attorney and fights for changes to death row inmates with mental health illnesses. During the interview we asked questions about mental illnesses in inmates and how the prison helps them and/or deals with those inmates.

In the interview she talked about how prisons in California are extremally under funded, over crowded, and how its set up to undermine mental health. All these things are ruining the mental health of inmates. Mass incarceration isn’t only about being put in prison, its also about what is going on in prison and how we can improve these conditions. This interview was very informative and introduced us to the subject of mental health in prison.