Group Project Our Group Undertook

Group Project

Our group undertook one of the most challenging tasks of our personal and academic careers by working with an inmate population, addressing concerns related to criminology, and confronting the community's economic and social hindrances to rehabilitation. We are therefore proud of our work in "From Darkness to Light" and have grown enormously as a result. The three group members began with similar political outlooks and philosophies. Therefore, we rarely disagreed about the theoretical focus or the methods of our research. Similar work ethics and shared passion for our project increased our collective dedication. All of us cared genuinely about the community and its residents including the inmate population on which we focused in "From Darkness to Light." A combination of personal experience and ideology informed our decisions to embark on this challenging but rewarding group project. We rarely reached impasses. Group meetings were scheduled far apart enough that each member brought new ideas and areas of concern to discuss. At the same time, the meetings were frequent enough to keep interest strong and to ensure that all members contributed equally. Project reports and meetings with the project advisor also held each member accountable for his or her own parts. Interpersonal conflicts were rare; in fact, I cannot recall a single instance in which confusion, disagreement, or miscommunication thwarted our progress. Effective cooperation and collaboration remain one of the core reasons why "From Darkness to Light" became a positive growth and learning experience for all three of us. However, reducing recidivism through changes in community policy and practice was the backbone of the project; our genuine interest in fostering change was the core reason for our success.

In keeping with the suggested time tables and scheduling for the project, we spent the most time on community field research. We allocated roughly equal time for group meetings, independent research, and report composition. In our first few group meetings we allocated tasks and assigned specific areas of research to individual members, according to personal interests and desire. Group meetings also allowed us to brainstorm about methodology, goals, and possible solutions to the high rates of recidivism we were all concerned about.

I don't know if any of us was prepared for the harsh realities that would greet us at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institute in Suffield. Two of us had visited prisons before. Yet no number of television shows or movies could convey the emotional hardships endured by inmates who have known a lifetime of incarceration. All three of our interview subjects were middle-aged males who would be spending most likely the rest of their lives in prison. Had their problems, which began in adolescence or early adulthood for all of them, been nipped in the bud they could now be with their families or working in a career path they love. However, H-Block, S-Block, and M-Block each confirmed our hypothesis and our fears: our community does not offer sufficient transition support services for released inmates. Stigmas against prior inmates and a lack of foresight or awareness may be some of the primary reasons for the lack of community programs. As soon as we embarked on our project I knew that we would end up raising more questions than we intended and that we would begin to feel overwhelmed by the upward battle sociologists have to climb in order to improve the well-being of individuals and the community as a whole. The area that we chose to investigate is broad, revealing a plethora of avenues for future sociological and criminological research. Assisting successful transitions from prison back to the community will improve family integrity and benefit the local economy as well as benefit the individual offenders themselves. All three of us really felt we were making a difference and embarking on meaningful research as soon as we began working together.

As chairperson, my role as moderator and motivator challenged me and inspired me to work as hard as possible. Assuming extra responsibility enabled me to take the project more seriously than I might have had I taken a less active role in moderating discussions and overseeing the members' work progress. Although I have always been soft-spoken and good with people, I worried that my role might create some resentment or an imbalance of power with my group mates, but the opposite was the case. Each of us contributed equally, which did make my job as chairperson easier. However, I didn't realize that I possessed innate leadership capabilities and look forward to opportunities in the future for leadership.

Our review of literature revealed similar trends nationwide, calling attention to the need for increased social services for ex-offenders in all communities. Our work therefore has the potential to expand into neighboring and far-away regions with similarly high incarceration and recidivism rates, especially among the minority male populations. One of the core goals of the course's group project in general was to analyze the social structures and community issues that may be root causes of our particular concern. Through our review of literature and open-minded discussions and brainstorming sessions, we have unearthed several possible root causes for the problem of high recidivism and high incarceration rates: they stem from social and economic injustice pervasive in our culture as a whole. We only wish we had the time, energy, and resources to address each of the root problems but can only hope that current and future researchers, community workers, and professionals can contribute their part.

In addition to conducting comprehensive, thorough research of literature, we also investigated the community services currently available. One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks of the entire "From Darkness to Light" project, finding out which resource centers offer which services and to whom took hours of our total project time. Professionals at the correctional facility assisted in our investigation, but we still had to visit and phone the organizations to retrieve detailed and up-to-date information about their programs. We focused especially on Community Partners in Action, the Catholic Charities Resettlement Program, and Families in Crisis. Each of these programs focused on a specific aspect of transitional services and so our group gleaned much about the range of services that are currently available for local ex-offenders. We quickly noticed, however, a paucity of inmate services. Except for a few well-meaning but inadequate vocational training programs available to inmates, educational and career development programs are neglected aspects of rehabilitation. Gradually our group came to understand how deeply entrenched the philosophy of punishment over rehabilitation guides public policy and popular opinion. Each of us hoped that we could help transform the paradigm to one of rehabilitation, which would allow first-time offenders to reconstruct ties with family and community members; develop their educational and vocational skills sets; and look forward to rewarding careers. As we found, ex-offenders meet with prejudice and suspicion in the community. Finding employment results either in unskilled positions with meager pay or in some cases, perpetual unemployment and underemployment. Poverty and a lack of social support systems create recidivism and thus, recidivism must be examined in light of its root causes.

We accomplished most of our project goals. Our main problem was finding too many new areas of concern related to recidivism and transitioning services and becoming disheartened. Our ability to evoke change seemed to pale in comparison to the size of the problem. Ultimately we realized that in order to accomplish our goals we must remain focused and relatively objective and realistic. Selecting three organizations to focus on and narrowing down our intervention strategies helped prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems we encountered.