Response of chapter 1 of inside rikers - Essay Example

Inside Rikers Inside Rikers Jennifer Wynn is one of the renowned in the United s. She has written many books some of which have become bestsellers. Inside Rikers is one of her books that have made great sales in society. The book is very touching due to the issues that it discusses. The issues touch on the life experienced by prisoners and, thus, makes the people on the outside try to understand the situation inside the prisons. The book describes Jennifer visiting a prison three different times and each time with a different personality.

Focusing on the first chapter of the book, Jennifer enters the prison as a journalist. In this context, Jennifer tries to understand the issues and the prison conditions. The rest of the book involves her visiting the prison as a rehabilitation teacher and eventually as the director of the program that she had established in the prison. Her major goal in going to the prison was to get some sort of understanding of the social context in there. After acquiring this, the book explains that she intended to take up the matter with the respective authorities in a bid to get prison reforms (Wayne, 2002).

This was inspiring to me as I have always been a person who supports justice and equality despite the different social statures around.The chapter states that in the prison, she talked to some of the inmates, after which she was able to go and visit their homes and talk to their families. The stories provided by their families are very touching and leave one contemplating the feeling of having one of their family members in prison. Jennifer talks about the food that the inmates eat. She complains stating that the fact that they had broken the law does not mean that they had to suffer the conditions which they were going through.

One of the points stated in the book is where she explains the manner in which one of the inmates wakes up in tattered clothes as he walks around the cellblock. This was one issue I found very disturbing as the welfare of inmates was ignored even after guards looking at him and giving a scornful laugh.Another key point that I noted explained in the book was that of drugs in prison. In the prisons, many of the interpersonal relationships found to go well were those that involved drugs. She was able to find that there were different gangs, or rather territories as they referred to them.

These were the major causes of the violent activities witnessed in prisons. Not only does Jennifer focus on the welfare of inmates but also looks at the condition of the correctional workers. I was also interested because the book helped me understand that correctional workers are responsible for ensuring that when the inmates are done serving their time in prison; they can get back to society in a better and more productive condition (Wayne, 2002). With this, Jennifer focuses on the prison activities carried out to pass time.

The most interesting factor that I found explained in the book was the amount of skills that lie in prison. I learned that were it not for the adamant efforts portrayed by the correctional officers, many of the people in prison go back to the street life and commit more crimes (Wayne, 2002).Jennifer acknowledges the presence of workshops in the prison facility as one of the factors that could have led to a much better society. It was noted that many of the prisoners who made it out after the training programs went and found drug cartels.

They were initiated back and while dealing drugs, could not put their skills into use. The book explains this in a manner which amazed me as it has always been a wonder how and why there are always second time offenders It is due to this that Jennifer decided to begin rehabilitation program in the prison to ensure that when people went out of the prison gates, they would not get back. ReferencesWayne, J. (2002). Inside Rikers: Stories from the world’s largest penal colony. New York: McGraw Hill Publishers.