Thoughts of Engagement- Ren Shimada

Prison reform has been an important issue in the United States and in Texas for many years. Prison reform is also a very broad issue which involves many different things such as the justice system, laws, how prisons are run, and conditions of prisons. For my challenge project, I mainly focused on the issue of prison overcrowding, which has been an escalating issue across the U.S. We currently have more prisoners than any other country in the world. This has been causing serious issues with spacing in prisons and the conditions of these overcrowded prisons. This is why many people want to focus on decarceration in prisons and changing punishments for certain crimes. Unfortunately, there is not an easy one-fix solution for overcrowding. Many people believed that decriminalizing drug-related crimes would fix this issue. Although it would decrease the number of incarcerated people in the U.S., it would not make enough of a difference. To make a significant difference, you would have to change the laws, punishments, and policies county by county across the U.S. To engage with such a big issue, I have been thinking about a few different options with Brooks and Sayer who are also focusing on prison reform. One of the ideas that we were considering was to get in contact with parole officers or representatives from the Harris County Dept. of Justice to talk to them about how prisons are run and what the largest issues they face are in Houston. Another idea that I was thinking about was to get in contact with Sheriff Ed Gonzales of Harris County and interview him about his views on prison reform. The reason I chose Sheriff Ed Gonzales is because he was working a few years back to reduce the number of prisoners who are sent to other private prisons in Texas. Private prisons are another factor in this issue because they are incentivized to incarcerate more people. So far all of our solutions so far are some sort of interview with a person who works with prisons or the justice system. I think this is a good direction to take as I highly doubt we would be able to change any laws or policies dealing with how our prisons are run.

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