Camille Rosales

ENG 123
Prof. Fisher
Fall 2015
20 September 2015
Reflection Journal
Week 3 Reflection Journal
1. My topic has come a long way since last week. I now want to discuss how rehabilitation
in prison and after prison is going to reduce mass incarceration. I originally only wanted
to argue that rehab would only be effective after prison, but the more I continued to
research, I found that it is important that inmates receive proper treatment before they go
back into the world. Also, it is important that inmates are offered a transitional service, so
they can adjust being back out into society.
2. First I discussed how Proposition 47 is contributing to mass incarceration and I offered
some of the effects it has on California. I specifically talked about how drug offenders are
let out of prison and back onto the streets, and the narcotic drug arrests are decreasing,
but property crimes are increasing. Next, I discussed how releasing drug offenders is not
going to reduce crime, it is only going to postpone it. Releasing drug offenders out of
prison is part of the larger picture. After, I discussed the recommitting offenders are a vast
contribution to the prison population. Ever since Prop 47 was approved, 4,500 people
have been arrested and released because the crimes committed were under Prop 47 and
out of those 4,500 offenders, 460 of them recommitted the crime. Lastly, I talked about
two possible solutions to reduce mass incarceration. Rehabilitation offers support and
transitional care for an inmate before and after he or she has been released into society. It
helps them understand their self-worth and it prevents them from going back to their old
ways. Electronic monitoring offers inmates to be out of jail, yet it keeps the public safe. It
prevents offenders from situations that could potentially send them back to prison. I put
my paragraphs in this order to show progression from what is contributing to mass
incarceration to a potential way to reduce it. The outline provided in the lecture assisted
me the most because it kept my paragraphs organized.
3. I think that all of my topic sentences were really week and should have put more time
into revising them. I believe the topic sentence that had the most revision was actually my
conclusion paragraph topic sentence. I had to try and find a way to tie in all the sources I
was discussing. First it started out as another statistic and then I added in a transitional
phrase that kind of showed that the essay was coming to an end. Then I briefly reiterated
what the point of all the sources were before I started describing them

4.

I unfortunately did not get my Literature review in on time for the Smart Thinking tutor
to assist me.
5. I think I do want to make a website for my multimodal project. I really liked the example
that was used in last weeks lecture. I want to make sure that my website is user friendly
and easy to navigate. I would also like to make sure it is very organized by having
different tabs for each topic that I discus.
6. I have not found any current solutions to my topic. One of the most important experts
who are related to my topic is the law enforcement and specifically the Criminon
program. The law enforcement can tell that letting drug offenders out of prison is not the
correct reform to end mass incarceration. It just keeps pushing out the crime, and will be
something the law enforcement will need to address at a later time. The Criminon
program offers inmates help to know their self-worth, so they can proceed with their lives
and transition smoothly back out into society. Possible solutions to mass incarceration are
rehabilitation and electronic monitoring. Rehab persuades inmates to know they are more
than their past mistakes because there are certain steps that need to be achieved before
being let out of prison. Electronic monitoring is targeted more towards the tax payers
because is one inmate that would need to be fed and sheltered.
7. Matthew 25 relates to the Syrian refugees greatly. Europe seems to be offering empathy
for the refugees, just like Christ would expect. They are being offered food, shelter,
clothes, health care, education and protection services. All these refugees are being given
a second chance by not only Europe, but by other neighboring countries, and the United
States too. This relates exactly to Matthew 25 because they a prisoners who are being
provided with all the essentials to get back on their feet.