Hampshire is a community that actively practices social justice in and outside of the classroom. Hampshire views social justice as “a goal of discourse, a responsibility of citizenship, and an accountable way to bring our ideals to life in the world.” What does social justice mean to you? Talk about an intercultural or multicultural experience you engaged in that involved social justice and impacted your understanding of your place in the world.
I am currently working on a project that involves service design, and the project essentially is focused on designing a better way for prison release and a better transition into community, so I have to create an idea that would better improve that experience, the idea at the moment is a resource pack that will give inmates leaving some resources and information to ease this rough transition, But the thing that has stuck out to me the most was the prisoners themselves, I had the opportunity to interview released inmates and what I learned broke my heart, changed my views on prisoners, and has encouraged me to work harder to come up with an idea that would benefit nearly all prisoners leaving.
I want to talk about
This will probably be how my essay is structured, and below will be my notes, some feelings about each topic and such. Which will be used to write this essay
I grew up upper middle class, growing up I never really had much mind or cared for learning about social justice, Everything had been provided for me and realistically I’ve never had to fight for much, I didn’t think it was beneath me of course, I still felt bad for those who had not much opportunity or struggled more with money etc, I never closed my heart to it, But I also never opened my mind to it. So in general, I never gave these things mind. Which may sound a bit bad for me to say. But it was only until I enrolled at Belfast Metropolitan College I had an opportunity to learn about more issues in the world, I studied Graphic Design and many of the projects focused on either mental health, or Sustainability. And it did get the gears in my brain turning and thinking of ways to help others and the world. I even attended an Erasmus event in Belgium lasting two weeks which focused on how to make the college more sustainable, earning a Level 2 OCN about sustainability. It was a great experience and I learned a lot through it, but overall it made me think about how I could make my projects better for the environment, and that was the first spark of social justice for me.
Whenever I started at Ulster University doing Digital Design, the social issue projects kept climbing, with a focus on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and solving problems, I kept doing projects that aimed to help people of all ages, whether it was a bank brand that was for responsible banking with younger people, or a sustainable cooking app that taught children how to prevent food waste, it was clear I understood what it meant to me as a designer, and that was we are problem solvers, we want to help solve issues.
In my most recent semester, We were given a project by the Southern Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, in which we had to design for prison release and transition to community, Which was a huge curve ball to me in my opinion, Our first project for a real client with a real target audience, I had done. And when I heard what we were doing, I wasn’t too fussed about it. I never met someone in prison before and I wasn’t too comfortable with the idea, But sometimes in life you have to do something you don’t want to do and that me, that was this project. My father is a doctor and all his life he has had to deal with people who wanted drugs from him, and he told me quote “That prisoners were no exception”. And even when Movies and TV, I had developed a stigma towards prisoners, They were either scum of the earth or Escaping. That is what media has taught me. All this combined left me with a bias, which I now admit is awful. But through the project and actually interviewing ex-convicts, I changed my mind.
So, as part of the project of prison release, I had to do a lot of research, understanding how prisons in the UK work, How prisons treat prisoners, the healthcare side, the housing side. I focused on as many relevant aspects as I could. I essentially wanted to learn as much as I could. We were given a mentor to talk to, which was Richard Good of the turnaround project, A Hub for prisoners who’ve left to give back to the community and find work, And he gave me and my group the opportunity to interview two prisoners, for privacy, I’m not going to name them but it was a 60 year old male and a 35 year old male. I asked a lot of questions, asking about their time during release, what could we do to make it better? standard questions for the project, But I also focused on some questions that were about life in prison and how they were doing outside, And it broke my heart, I wrote about it in my notes after the interview and this is what I said:
“So I conducted the interview, I of course was way out of my depth, But this was too important for me to brush off, So as a group we worked on questions before hand and prepared. The interview was done in person, and to me it really opened my eyes with prison life and release, I don’t want to ask what they were in for but just knowing some of the struggles they had really broke my heart.*
I think the things that got at me the most were the struggle of getting a valid ID, the lack of pay from Jobs afterwards, the lack of support being released. It was just a bit sad for me, something I take for granted and all.”
After the interview, I immediately felt sympathy, and ultimately it changed not only my perspective on the project, but prisoners altogether, I felt guilt knowing I had more resources than them, knowing I’ve had an easier life than them, knowing my bias’s before hand. For me, I was disheartened. By how hard they’ve had it, and how easy I’ve had it. I took a weekend for myself and reflected on the interview, and it made me be more empathetic to these issues, and from that point on, I made it my goal to help those incarcerated.