Agency and Oppression: A New Look At the American Prison System

The United States has the largest prison population in the world. Budget loses and rising prison numbers have prompted new criminal justice policies. The article talks about Raphael Frazier, a man who spent most of his 20's in prison. After being released, he felt oppressed by his parole officer, who seemed determine to see Raphael fail. Raphael was soon sent back to prison, for forging pay roll checks, something he learned to do while in prison. He says "I went in at 17 just as a dumb kid and when I came out I had the tools to do whatever bad things I wanted to do". Raphael is not advocating crime, but merely explaining how some prisoners take advantage of their oppression acquiring new skills, however harmful they may be. However, this common use of agency in prison leads to a downward spiral, more than half of former prisoners will go back to prison. State governments, such as Kansas, are hoping to break this by creating new parole programs, which instruct parole officers to look to help the former prisoners assimilate back into society, not oppress them. Now in prisons, instead of learning how to forge payroll checks and other types of crime, prisoners have the opportunity to enroll in job training. The new program has been successful, but in order for it to work in the long run it will need public support. 

I found this new program to be interesting. While I believe that people should be punished for their crimes, I also believe that they should have the opportunity to live normally after their punishment is over. Prisoners used to express agency by learning new methods of crimes in prison, now they have the chance to learn a skill that will be useful to them once they are outside and trying to start a new life. I believe that after prisoners have served their sentence they should no longer be oppressed by a prejudiced system.  I hope that this program works out in the long term and that other states will be inspired by Kansas' success.