The interviewee spoke to their experiences working as a social worker providing mental health services in the criminal justice system. She described different approaches to working with clients, whether more restrictive or ones that offer more autonomy. Additionally, she offers her experiences in confronting the hierarchies and “rules” that govern mental health in the criminal justice system and the ways mental health professionals become overshadowed by correctional officers, police officers, and judges. Overall, she expresses her affinity for restorative approaches in working with incarcerated individuals.

The interviewee describes his experiences visiting incarcerated folks with the non-profit Prisoner Visitation & Support.

Debbie discussed the various ways in which the prisons in and around Waymart, PA, have intersected with her life. She is a staff member at the local Chamber of Commerce and helped organize local community members to prevent the state from closing down SCI Waymart in 2018. She also guides businesses through the process of becoming a vendor for the prisons, although selling to the prisons is not a very important part of the local economy. However, the prisons provide well over 1,000 jobs, and there are many businesses (e.g., restaurants, gas stations) that cater to correctional officers and people visiting incarcerated people. The prisons are, therefore, the basis of the local economy. She described how the community came together to support correctional officers during the US federal government shutdown in 2018 by raising money and providing free food and how the community was devastated a few years ago when a correctional officer was killed by a prisoner while other prisoners just watched. She said that the community supports having the prisons and feels safe, although some people continue to be upset because the land the prison was built on was acquired through eminent domain and families lost their homes. She also told stories about personal experiences with the prison. When she was in high school, she was a volunteer paramedic and had to respond to medical emergencies at the prison every couple of weeks. Most of the time, the calls were about nonviolent medical issues, although sometimes she responded to violent cases. One time, she had to transport a serial killer who threatened to kill her. She said that the state prison was a very old building and felt claustrophobic. Additionally, she described how the mafia threatened her family because her husband worked with prisoners in the witness protection program. Cars would follow them around, and one time they chased her while she was picking up her son from the bus stop. Debbie wants people to know the difficulties correctional officers face daily and how stressful and traumatic the job is. She also says that many (but not all) incarcerated people deserve a second chance.

Brandon has lived in Leavenworth, Kansas, almost his entire life. Leavenworth is home to a federal medium-security prison, a military prison, a state prison, and the Leavenworth County jail. Brandon said that the presence of these facilities is almost a “non-issue,” in that they are so deeply embedded in the community that people do not really think about them very much, and they do not feel unsafe. The time when Brandon felt most affected by the presence of the prisons was one time in 1992 when there was a riot in the federal prison, and Brandon’s father, who was the supervisor of the prison kitchen, had to report to work on his day off to help control the riot. Brandon and his family had to wait several hours for him to come home and were anxious about his safety. However, his father’s job at the prison also provided Brandon’s family with financial security. Brandon’s mother also worked at the state prison for three or four years, running the canteen where inmates could purchase food. This was while Brandon was an adult away at college, and he was slightly anxious about his mother working there. Brandon also worked for six years in the county attorney’s office. He started as a legal secretary, then worked briefly as a diversion officer, and then spent about four years as a victim and witness services officer. In this role, he was the point of contact at the court for victims and witnesses. His responsibilities included collecting victim impact statements, updating victims and witnesses about the status of their case, answering their questions, and arranging for them to appear in court. His docket dealt primarily with drug offenses, property crimes, and low-level violent crimes (“bar fights”), but it was a difficult job because he had to step into very emotionally charged situations and help victims and witnesses navigate the legal system. This was especially difficult because many victims were unhappy with how their case was handled. The most challenging case he ever worked on was one in which the young granddaughters of one of his coworkers were sexually abused, and he had to guide the girls and their family through the trial. As the president and CEO of the Leavenworth-Lansing Chamber of Commerce, Brandon engages with the prison because they are a member of the Chamber. However, unlike other members, his relationship with them is a little more formal and transactional. He sits on the prison’s community relations board and values how the prison contributes to the community. For example, in addition to providing jobs, the prison runs a farm that provides food to local food banks. The prison also has a woodshop that makes trophies, plaques, and other custom goods for community organizations. The prison also participates in many of the Chamber’s activities, such as its leadership development class, and it has given tours to members of the Chamber. Brandon is impressed with how seriously the prison takes its commitment to the community. A few years ago, one area of controversy was when the federal government considered moving detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the federal prison in Leavenworth. Brandon was personally in favor of this because he did not see much danger in it, but he did not feel like he could take a position on it in his official capacity as a Chamber representative since the proposal was very controversial locally. He was somewhat concerned that the move could stigmatize the town. Brandon also gave an in-depth description of the federal prison facility and how a new facility is being built to replace the old one, which was built in the mid-nineteenth century. The construction of the new facility will be a great opportunity for the town because it will require more hiring and contracting. Brandon hopes that the old facility will remain standing because it could be a tourist attraction for the town. Brandon ended the interview by talking about how he thinks of the prison and the inmates as community members. He says that modern prison wardens are not “mean old white guys,” citing that some of the wardens that he has worked with at the federal prison are women and people of color. “Modern wardens” are not harsh or cruel but are “like CEOs” in how they manage their facilities. He also thinks that it is essential for people to recognize inmates’ humanity and treat them like people, and he feels that the staff members at the prisons in Leavenworth all understand this and try their best to treat inmates with respect. He thinks that the line between prisons and the community is blurring and that this is a good thing because inmates should be seen as members of the community. He said that society often does not recognize the humanity of inmates or even of staff members at the prisons.

In this interview, Imam Encarnación narrates his experiences of serving as a chaplain of maximum and medium-security correctional facilities for twelve years. In his work in the prisons, he witnessed continuous violence against incarcerated people, from verbal abuse to rampant negligence to physical torture. He is highly critical of the structural conditions that bring people to prisons and subject them to “brutality,” in his words, once they are there. “The system is built to destroy Black and Brown men,” he concludes. As a warning, this interview contains detailed descriptions of physical violence, verbal abuse, overt racism, and torture that may be disturbing to some.

Transcript