/news-archive/tag/justice-changemaker-program/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:58:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/08/27/african-prisons-project-bowen/ Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:58:20 +0000 /news/?p=74954 ... Bowen law student works with African Prisons Project]]> Through his work with APP, Jerome Wilson, a Marine Corp veteran, was not only able to assist the organization in its research, but was able to take on professional and personal experiences that he believes will help shape his future career path. There are inmates in many countries across Africa who will never meet a lawyer and are unable to afford the most basic access to justice. Through APP鈥檚 Justice Changemaker Program, prisoners and prison staff are taught how to study the law, giving them the ability to provide themselves and others with critical legal advice. Based in London, APP works primarily within prisons in Kenya and Uganda. APP offers a formalized sponsorship program enabling prisoners and prison staff to study law through the University of London鈥檚 international program. Wilson said that when he began looking for potential partners for his international project, he wanted an organization that could combine his law and public service degree programs. 鈥淚 was able to see an international public service organization that had a legal focus,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淢any organizations, especially western organizations, focus on making change but they do it by treating symptoms. APP is trying to fix the system by creating individuals that can advocate for their own rights, defend themselves, and advise their peers, giving them skills and knowledge and degrees so that when they leave prison, they don鈥檛 fall back into the same patterns as before.鈥� After arriving in Kampala, Wilson created an evaluation plan to measure the impact of APP’s Justice Changemaker Program. Specifically, Wilson鈥檚 work set about assessing the after-effects of incarceration, both on prisoners and their families. 鈥淭he research has shown that, yes, the primary audience for the consequences of incarceration is the prisoners themselves,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not just targeted on that one population, it extends to their children and the people they cared for and cared for them prior to prison.鈥� Wilson interviewed three different populations. First, he interviewed the auxiliary paralegals 鈥� incarcerated individuals who are trained to be paralegals. Second, he interviewed the families of auxiliary paralegals. Finally, he interviewed previous participants in the program. He asked each group questions about the school performance of children and the frequency and causes of the need to relocate. 鈥淢ost people who relocated following an incarceration, it was due to a lack of income originally provided by the incarcerated individual,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淢ost children, if they were removed from their schools, it was due to a lack of financing for school fees.鈥� A native of Portsmouth, Virginia, Wilson said that his first-year Clinton School experiences helped him with his work in ways he never expected. 聽鈥淚 can鈥檛 stress enough how much the classes prepared me for this work,鈥� Wilson said. His Practicum project work, in conjunction with Field Research Methods taught by Dr. Nichola Driver, taught him 鈥渢eam management and how to handle himself in a public service environment.鈥� The communications class taught by Dr. Robert Richards assisted him in his collection of qualitative data. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 realize how much you learn in this program as you鈥檙e going through it,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淭hen, you get out into the world and you can pull from it, as if it鈥檚 something you鈥檝e been practicing for years.鈥� Wilson noted that the experience with APP had multiple professional and personal impacts. After clerking with the Pulaski County Prosecutor鈥檚 Office, he was convinced he would follow a specific path to becoming a deputy prosecuting attorney after finishing law school. Now, he said he could see himself taking a different route. 鈥淚 really like working for a nonprofit,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淚 really like working at a place where I can see tangible results. I really like working with people. I could see myself doing this full-time.鈥� Personally, he said the time away from his family 鈥� his wife and their two children stayed in Little Rock 鈥� made him reconsider an eventual move back to the East coast, where the majority of their family is located. He also said the downtime allowed more time for introspection, which led to a personal writing habit that he has maintained. 鈥淲riting was my way of processing it. It worked and it鈥檚 something I鈥檓 still doing now. The first one was a poem, the second one was more of a spoken word, and it鈥檚 just evolved from there. When I have these complex things in my head, I need to find ways to get it out. And it鈥檚 been very therapeutic.鈥� In the upper right photo, Jerome Wilson (second from left) works with co-workers from the African Prisons Project. This story was written by Patrick Newton of the Clinton School of Public Service.]]>