Blog Post:

3-7-2016

Targeted Rehabilitation

There are many problems within DOC that should be adressed. I only have 20 minutes and 100 lines to work with so I don't have enough time to list all the problems. I want to talk about working with individuals and not a one stop shop fix all.
Let me explain myself. If you are born in Iowa on a small pig farm and have an upbringing that was fairly normal and commit a drug offense, the pathway that led you there was different then if you were born in Jersey and was raised by a gang infested neighborhood. See the difference? 
There are endless amounts of neighborhoods and different places and circumstances to be considered. However, the things that lead to criminal activity are not as many. They stem from a handful of different categories. Some are parental influences, some are friend influences some are lack of attention or gang activity some is induced by childhood trauma of some sort etc etc etc...you get the point. But these things you can limit down to a set of categories that is manageable. 
This leads me to my point, there are cultures that are predominent in each category. Like many african americans are born in poverty and are in places that have high gang activity. Those born in such circumstances need a specific kind of help. Thus is the same with all cultures. The same value systems are not in place with all people, they each need to be treated differently, according to their own individual value and moral teachings. Get the idea now?
My aim has not been secret, I want LGBTQ to be recognized as a culture and end LGBTQ recidivism rates. This can be accomplished by focused treatment and indivual attention. Since we can't realistically expect millions of people to be treated this way the next best thing and perhaps even more effective is a group therapy setting. This is where people with the same set of linking circumstances get together to help one another get through the things that brought them there. Or, plainly put: people helping one another. Since a gangster and a homosexual have little in common other then they breath the same air, they can't and shouldn't be put in the same group setting for help. That is unless your groups goal is tolerance. But we aren't talking about tolerance here, were talking about ending criminal activity.
I have found tha DOC recognizes many cultures. However LGBTQ isn't one of them until recently. Now that it's here and recognized I am excited to start meeting with my fellow LGBTQ peers and tryig to get our messy lives sorted out. We have lives to lead and people that love us, we need to be able to feel comfortable enough to open up about the deep seated issues that led us here in the first place. We can't do that if we feel hated or ostracized or displaced...which is the current feeling. Despite what's going on out there, in here it's still segregated. 
This isn't just the case with LGBTQ either, this is the case with blacks, asians, natives and mexicans and russians. That is the result of segregation, isolation. It's the negative recognition of our genetic differences. Instead of celebrating what makes us unique, we pojnt it out and create a heirarchy that enables our self-entitlement and the degredation of our fellow men and women. One that is sad and disgraceful to everyone who bleeds.
I hope that we can one day achieve the abolition of the prison system and DOC altogether, no more victims. BUt DOC seems to be threatened by that notion. After all they would be put out of business, now wouldn't they. It's not a good business model to get rid of your customers...

With Love

Jeff Utnage