Name: Dorsey Smith

Social Justice Group: Mass Incarceration in the U.S.

Date of Fieldwork: February 25, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Chief Medical Officer for Nyc Public Hospitals-Ross MacDonald

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?[:: :

On Friday 25th we interviewed Ross Macdonald. He works as the Chief Medical Officer for NYC public hospitals. He has seen first hand what it’s like in jail and how it can effect a person’s physical and mental health. This interview we wanted to focus on jails (instead of prisons) because we have already learned much about mass incarceration and what jail is like.

Something that personally struck me about this interview are the stereotypes of men in jail. He told us that there are many stereotypes about men in jail, most specifically that men in Jail are tuff and/or dangerous. But, Mr. Macdonald said that they are actually very emotional from what he’s seen. Some other things we learned were: mass incarceration is a tool used to fight against drug use and gun violence, and it doesn’t work.  We also learned that Covid-19 has been a huge risk for incarcerated people and lawyers want to release certain people because the prisons have been over crowded, which increases the risk for Covid-19.