Action Reflection
Prepared by Stephen Wandro
Prepared by Stephen Wandro
For my action for this social justice project I made a poster to raise awareness for my topic. The title of the poster was “Criminal Injustice” to point out the disparity between the name of the criminal justice system and the injustices towards the economically disadvantaged that we had found in the course of our research. The poster had a picture of a criminal defendant in handcuffs to visualize the human side of the issue. In words on the poster, I described the unequal representation some criminal defendants receive because of their poverty. I wanted to convey to the students at Serra that representation in court should not be dependent on the amount of money that person has. I feel that the message is easy to agree with, as most, if not all, believe that the criminal justice system should be unbiased.
Recognizing the problem is not enough however, some sort of action must be taken. I put the links for two nonprofit organizations working to fight injustice in the criminal justice system. These two organizations are the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the Equal Justice Initiative. Through these organizations, students can learn even more about the topic and become involved in a way that will help to end this injustice. I made ten copies of my poster and hung them in various locations throughout the school. I feel confident now that I have gone beyond merely learning about and studying this human rights problem; I have taken the initiative and informed my fellow classmates about this injustice. Now that awareness has been raised about injustice in the criminal justice system, more can be done to work towards fixing this injustice.
Looking back on all the work I have done, I feel I have come to realize the complexity of the social justice system, and that it is not a clear cut issue of injustice. Many of the aims of the criminal justice system are good, but sometimes the processes themselves to not treat everybody fairly. In doing my action, I have realized that there is not too much my classmates and I can do to change the system. This system has been in place for a long time and there already exist groups like the Equal Justice Initiative trying to fight any injustices in the system. However, learning about the criminal justice system and sharing that knowledge with my classmates was definitely worthwhile, as it is always better to be informed. Ultimately, I doubt many will take the time to read my posters I hung around the school, but I can take comfort in the fact that there are groups already fighting injustice in the criminal justice system, and that I am now informed about these issues and tried to share this with my classmates.
