On Februrary 4th, we has the pleasure of meeting with Sophia Henager. Ms Henager is a Law Fellow from the Equal Justice Initiative. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in political science and international relations from Gonzaga University and is a 2020 graduate of New York University School of Law. Her main focus is on cases involing life sentences and the death penalty. She gave us very helpful information regarding these types of cases.

Sophia started off with talking about the issue with mass incarceration. She explained how it mainly affects the black community. Black people were more likely to be arrested for having drugs, yet white poeple have been reported to have it more often. In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, which was actually a ploy to imprison more people of color. It was used to make black people look like heavy drugs users. This statement alone raised the incarcerated population from 300,000 to 2,000,000.

She also talked about unfair sentences. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton passed the Violent Crime Control Act bill. It stated that if someone gets 3 felonies, one violent in them, they can be incarcerated for life. People in povetry have been incarcerated for life for non-violent crimes such as stealing little items due to this law, and it shows how much the justice system needs to improve.

Our group enjoyed taking with Sophia, and we took in a bunch of information. This Equal Justice Initiative is a wonderful organization, and I wish to talk with more people from there soon.

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On Monday, Februrary 14, we had the pleasure of meeting with Jacob Hutt from the Prison Law Office. Mr. Hutt is a Staff Attorney who joined the organization in 2020. He focuses on disability inequalities and unfair living conditions in prisons. He is currently working on the Armstrong v. Newsom case, a class action brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act on behalf of people with disabilities in California state prisons, and the Chavez v. County of Santa Clara case, a class action challenging certain conditions in the Santa Clara County jails. He helped us learn about the many inequalities in the prison system.

During the interview Jacob explained that there are various inequalities within the system, and they are all in different aspects. For example, people who are blind aren’t given proper care, only someone to do things for them. Therefore, if they have anything they need to read, their privacy is obstructed, since their person must read the letter for them.

Inquality is present as racial discrimination, unacceptable living conditions, and inproper mental health treatment. If you have a certain tatoo before coming into the jail, you may be associated with a certain gang, despite not being there. People with mental health are often “treated” with physicsl force and intimidation. Living spaces have become overcrowed, making the conditions unlivable and unconstitutional. I really enjoyed talking with him, and I wish to learn more about this aspect of the topic.

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On Tuesday, February 15, we were honored to have a nice chat with Alison Hardy from the Prison Law Office. She is a Senior Staff Attorney who earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and her J.D. at UCLA in 1988. Her cases usually follow the topic of mental and physical health, and she is currently working on the Plata v. Newsom and Hall v. County of Fresno cases.

During the interview, Ms. Hardy informed us of all the flaws in the mental health protocols in the prison system. She explains how the system is designed to undermine mental health, isolating and degrading anyone who shows it. There are some ways that they help those prisoners, but it is overshadowed by what they don’t do for them. She explained how when she saw how infected prisoners were treated very poorly during the HIV epidemic, that she immediately wanted to study this area and work on improving it. We really enjoyed talking with her about these issues, and we appreciate that we were able to talk with 2 people from the same organization. This is a very interesting aspect of our topic, and I wish to learn about it more.

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Last week, my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. Even if I may have not done as much work as I would have liked, I wasn’t nervous. THe slides were touched up and looked pretty good. One interesting fact i shared said as many as 2.7 million children have an incarcerated parent. The information we uncovered during our research was plentiful and I loved doing it. I feel this this project is going really well so far.

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