Week 8: Prison- Compassion Trauma Circle

    This week's topic is the prison compassion trauma circle. It's an experiment done with inmates of a prison and they're asked a series of questions that had to deal with the first 18 years of their life, basically their childhood, and they took a step forward if they answered yes/experienced the questions. Fritzi Horstman is the founder of the Compassion Prison Project and she explained later on in the video that she probably shared the exact same experiences as the other inmates. Horstman said, "I was abused as a young girl. I was beaten by my mother. I was verbally abused by my mother. I was sexually abused by another man. My father was an alcoholic. My mother was a rageaholic. I've driven drunk. I've sold drugs. I was a juvenile delinquent. Probably my story's similar to most of your stories in here. I'm white and I'm female, and nothing happened to me. So I got a get out of jail free card and so I'm here now because I see myself in every one of you." When Horstman mentioned that she was a white female and avoided jail so easily it clearly shows that the justice system has a bias and that if you are especially white, it gives you that privilege. Out of the group she was talking to after the circle experiment, most of the inmates were people of color. This small group that Horstman was personally talking to were reflecting on their personal experiences and the questions asked during the circle experiment. Out of their discussion one of the inmates admitted to not taking a step forward when he should have for one of the questions and he felt guilty or he was a coward for not having the courage to admit that the question did happen in his life. He felt guilty that he was not up a step forward with his 'friends and brothers'.

    I feel like this social experiment with the prisoners was a good eye opener for not only the audience watching this experiment be done, but also for the inmates themselves who participated in it because they realize that they're not alone/the only ones who experienced childhood trauma. Research shows that a lot of inmates share the common problem of having mental illnesses that most likely stems from childhood trauma. In my opinion, I feel like how a person is, how they act, and their decision making comes mainly from their childhood experiences and the environment they were raised in. 

    My preconceptions on inmates are usually very cautious when around them because I don't know what they're serving time for even when there could be a possibility that they were wrongfully accused or their charge wasn't even serious. But I don't want to automatically assume things because if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't wanna be automatically judged because of stereotypes. I bet that the inmates who are trying to change their life are tired of being turned away immediately for their past actions and serving time in prison. I feel like people end up incarcerated because they're caught selling drugs or stealing something because they have no money or their close to poverty. They can't afford the essential resources that they need to live so they try to make/earn money in extreme ways that could get them caught and put into jail.