Reply To: Session #2 The Criminal Justice Landscape

[marinatrejo7515]

Part 1:
In regards to the article Art of Legislative Lawyering, the biggest takeaway was not only understanding the much-needed roles for a successful legsilative advocacy group but also, a clear division of labor needs to occur as a way to ensure efficiency. By clearly defining the roles of each members, symbiotic relationships begin to form and, as I realized, that is crucial because advocacy efforts as such run more smoothly when individuals recognize a collective effort is needed.

As for Criminal Justice Reform Strategy, I definitely had an “aha” moment when Chloe called out the hypocrisy of the reform system who uses the idea of safety to continue with mass incarceration. As Chloe explained, if the criminal justice system cared about safetly on a well-rounded level, there would not be 50% of crime going unreported, untested rape kits, and unsolved murders. Furthermore, my biggest takeaway was realizing how much of the criminal justice process is not overlooked and as a result, mass incarceration can subsequently be a result. For example, Chloe highlights prosecutor accountability; a part of the process to incarceration that I also belive plays a part in enabling the continuation of mass incarceration.

The biggest takeaway from the Reentry Memo was making the connection and seeing the implications of measuring and collecting data concerning re-enrty programs. As mentioned, there are many debates regarding what makes a re-entry program successful. However, as the memo explains, one needs to take into account how difficult it is to measure success of reentry porigrams and how it affects the creation of said programs.

Part 2:

In the future, I would like to be a policy researcher because it highlights two of my passions: developinging interpersonal connections and research.