News from Jail

A Little Background

I am supposed to be doing "fieldwork" this quarter, which consists of orientation, observation and shadowing at my practicum site. In other words training, not actually doing. I'm required to complete 30 hours of said training in preparation for actual doing during my practicum over the next two quarters. Practicum consists of 200 hours (10 hours per week) of supervised counseling and related activities.

However, the jail is a busy place and there is lots to be done, so my supervisor has assigned me three clients in addition to conducting evaluations for Community Corrections (a program that aims to get people working in the community instead of being incarcerated), attending group therapy sessions, and meeting for group and individual supervision.

I have seen my first client and conducted my first CommCorr eval (see, you're picking up the lingo already!). Wow. I feel ill equipped to be jumping in so fast, but more problematic is that I have already worked 29 of my 30 fieldwork hours and we still have a month to go. Hmmmm.

Inmates

I have learned more in the few hours that I have spent with inmates than I learned in all my classroom hours put together. It is eye-opening to experience a part of our society from which most of us are completely segregated.

I've been sitting in on a CommCorr group that my supervisor runs. These women have traded a relatively short prison sentence for a much longer community sentence that involves being under the thumb and strict rules of the system with the threat of prison for any infraction. Many are trying to do this for the second or third time, having been sent back from the halfway house to jail for not following the rules.They are a tough, sullen bunch who warm up only slightly in the course of our session. The purpose of the group is to teach them coping skills, but I'm not sure the presentation - including pages of dense text - is tailored to their interest or abilities.

Sometimes it is very bizarre to transition from my fancy school and house and life into this other world, where it's not the difference in trappings that is so stark, but the difference in opportunity. I wake up and go to sleep grateful every day; it is only through luck and grace that I am not on the other side of the bars.

By the way, if you're curious about what life in jail//prison is like, National Geographic has an excellent series entitled, Lockdown, that profiles many different aspects of living behind bars.

Next: Meet my colleagues!