Two Week Recap (11/17)

Hello! It's been a couple of weeks so I'm going to do a brief update on everything that has happened.

November 4th, (which was the week of my last blog) I was able to sit in on an SMU criminal law class that my mentor was teaching. From what I gathered they have been discussing defenses, and this class focused on the insanity defense. While I am not discussing insanity defense specifically, they have so much to do with mental illness, which is relevant to my work. I had a great experience, and I am so grateful I was able to attend.

In the past two weeks, we have also done a research speech. This was kind of the turning point for my work. I realized that most of the work I have done focused around sexual victimization of inmates with mental illness, and that I've been trying to overcomplicate it, so I have switched my focus (yes again) towards mental illness and sexual victimization. I have been focusing more on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and how its standards protect (or don't protect) inmates with mental illness. In my research speech I discussed my inmates with mental illness are at a higher risk of sexual abuse and why there are so many inmates with mental illness inside of correctional facilities. I also talked about the PREA, and about some possible problems.

As I have continued my research I have looked more directly at the standards of the PREA. This past week I looked at standard nine, which has to do with mental and medical healthcare. What I have found is that the standards are put in place to help the inmates, however, if the standards are not being implemented, then there is no chance of any change actually happening.

This week I plan on looking at another standard of the PREA that affects those with mental illness. For my Original Work, I think that the best place to apply this information would be in a piece of work where I discuss/analyze what standards affect those with mental illnesses, why they are not effective, and a possible (and plausible) solution.