Journal 3-3
Last week I asked what inspired Patience to start the Guerrilla Goodness Campaign. In doing some research on her Guerrilla Goodness website, I found that it all started with her sister. Back when Patience was poor and had no health insurance for her baby, her sister would pay bills and send her anonymous L.L. Bean packages. Even though she never confessed, Patience's sister's acts of kindness always came at the right moments. Patience soon realized that "kindness came in all forms and I didn’t have to be rich to spread love and joy in the world." Thus Guerrilla Goodness was born. Patience took it to the streets (and the internet) and a movement of kindness and compassion began. Completing small acts of kindness for strangers and friends alike included chalking sidewalks with messages of love, leaving Starbucks gift cards in books for the next reader, ding-dong ditch kindness, and many more.
Last week in class we watched the "Jail" episode of "30 Days." In it Morgan spent twenty-five days in the East and West branch of a Henrico County Jail. The first jail was extremely overcrowded and once Morgan went through registration he was told to find a place to but his mattress. Prisoners stay in different Day Rooms, and their cells are all in that Day Room. They are not required to do anything all day, they don't even have to leave their cell. But when Morgan was transferred to East, prisoners woke up at six a.m.and had full schedules all day long. They attended group therapy, personal therapy and workshops on how to live life on the outside.
I thought the episode was very interesting; it educated me on something I did not even know was an issue. In 2007 3.1% of the American adult population was in jail. This does not take into account underage citizens in juvenile detention. We also learned that one out of three prisoners end up back in jail within six months. It was disheartening to learn at the end of the episode that Travis and George, prisoners who Morgan befriended in jail, were back in jail in two months and two weeks, respectively. The episode that our currently incarceration system is a revolving door. Not all prisoners are rehabilitated in prison, and when they get out they keep making the same mistakes and get in trouble with the law again.
For next week I am wondering if incarceration rates differ by race.
1) 30 Days TV Show. (n.d.). www.tv.yahoo.com. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://tv.yahoo.com/30-days/show/36835/photos/1
2) Guerrilla Goodness Homepage. (n.d.). guerrillagoodness.com. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://guerrillagoodness.com/images/layout_01.png
3) Salgado, P. (n.d.). The Story. guerrillagoodness.com. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://guerrillagoodness.com/
