A Rikers Island inmate Joseph McRae, broke the jaw of medical intern Stephanie Porcelli
Another Rikers Island inmate Duane Belcher, assaulted a volunteer and pulled up her skirt.
The first inmate has previous charges of punching a women. The second inmate has charges of assault and sexual abuse. My question here is how exactly does this criminal system work? Two recent events, almost to close in time, have occurred and why? Most of the post I have read about the system have suggested that there is to much neglect on the inmates but what about the safety of, for example these interns and volunteers? It scares me that the people who are going in to help or learn about our field are being assaulted. How do you guys feel about these articles? Should internships even allow these types of environments? How can we prevent further attacks? As human service workers should we expect these to occur? I don’t think so, what do you think?
To be honest Jadira, after reading both of these stories it does concern me greatly and no we should not expect these things to happen. After Pastor Willard spoke in class about the criminal mind, what has happened, and what has the potential to happen in prisons/jails, I would have to think long and hard before putting myself into a position like that. On the other hand, things like this can happen anywhere, the possibilities are greater in prison/jail, but the reality is one could be working in a mental health clinic and still experience the same thing. Unfortunately it reverts to the state of mind of the individual who commits such crimes.
As a huge advocate for prison reform, which includes safety measures for the entire correctional facility, inmates, guards, maintenance workers, visitors, volunteers, everybody who is at risk. I have to believe in rehabilitation, reform, and advocating for those who cannot advocate for themselves, otherwise why should we choose this career path. I also believe that given a chance, prison reform has the potential to eradicate a majority of prison violence. I am not saying to be blind to reality, but to pick and choose wisely which population one would prefer to work, or complete an internship. I just pray moving forward, that these acts of violence can be contained.
This is extremely horrific. As human service workers and as general workers, I believe we should expect these things because lets face it, this is a jail. Many things like these occur many times at a jail setting and even the deaths of individuals occur. To prevent attacks like this from the future, I don’t think there should be any interns interning at Rikers Island or any other jail as it can be extremely dangerous.