Serving the Incarcerated Community
It’s been over a year since I started the Engagement J program at CUNY. Since then I have said “my community is incarcerated people and their loved ones” or “I want to serve the incarcerated community” a lot of times. To my classmates, to professors, and to people online. I dabbled in things I thought would be helpful, like creating a blog where people could anonymously share their truths about incarceration. But now, in my final semester, I have a chance to really serve people with incarcerated loved ones and hopefully through them, incarcerated people themselves.
Restricted by the ongoing pandemic, my research and interactions with the community have been mostly online. I’ve found an extensive and robust community of people who love someone that is incarcerated. People who have practical questions, How many books are they able to send to a certain facility at once? Where can they find acceptable shirts to send their loved one, one with no logos? Sometimes they just flat out need support, like a mother whose husband was arrested and sent to Rikers Island this year. What should she expect?
For my practicum project I plan to create a website that is easy to navigate and houses these tidbits of information surrounding visits to New York State prison facilities. Things like visitation guidelines, transportation options, and where to stay overnight in the town of the facility. I’d like to crowdsource this information from people who have experience with the different facilities.
To sum it up in one sentence: I want to create a website that breaks down the New York State prison system into understandable and digestible parts, making it easier for people with incarcerated loved ones to support them.
Something I’ve learned is that there is no way to know the extent of each individual and family’s loss, no full understanding of the gap that a loved one going to prison creates. Many of these people stay away from social media and fear telling their stories because of fear of retaliation or judgement, even by those close to them. The value of these online communities cannot be underestimated. They hold an incredible amount of information and a network of support that otherwise wouldn’t be as accessible.
My goal is to make the information around visitation and transportation to NYS facilities a tiny bit easier to find. Instead of having to ask about what to expect from a certain facility, or scouring the internet for a mention of it, it’ll all be in one place.
The New York State prison system is separated into Hubs, or geographical sections that each contain a few facilities. I went through and determined the most recent population of each facility and each hub (you can find this data here) to find out which has the highest population.
The Wende Hub in Western New York currently has around 7,000 people incarcerated in nine facilities, so I’m starting there.
Are you a member of this community? Do you have an inside tip on visiting one of the facilities in New York State? Send me a message: carla.canning85@journalism.cuny.edu, or take my survey.
