Frida Guzman

Hello Everybody,Happy Frida Friday,and welcome to my blog!

My name is Frida Guzman and I am currently a senior at BASIS Scottsdale.

Here is some classified information about myself:

When it comes to binge watching shows on Netflix, I am the queen. From How to Get Away with Murder to The Office, I have no specific genre to conform to, I enjoy it all...except for action movies… I tend to be all over the place when it comes to music too. I could go from listening to Radiohead to dancing to DJ Snake.

Although my charter school has a strong STEM emphasis, I have always been more drawn to the intricacies of the humanities and social sciences. Discussing literature and delving into different historical events have always lifted my mood in a school where calculus and computer science were fun hobbies for most students.

My personal interests ultimately led me to my passion: social justice.

Throughout my life, I have always been captivated by the legal system. Everything about it was interesting to me. In fact, to me it was always important to focus on equality and social change within our society as not only have I read about the inequity, I have also personally witnessed it.

This led me to my senior project at the Arizona Department of Corrections: Victim Services. More about that below:

For the next few months, I will be using this blog to document my journey and findings for my Senior Research Project. At BASIS Scottsdale, the seniors do not attend school for their third trimester and instead conduct a research project in which they pose a question and take part in an internship in attempts to gain access to specific information and potential answers that could assist the research question.

For my research project, I will be participating in an internship with the Arizona Department of Corrections: Victim Services to further explore the support and treatment that victim’s receive once a verdict has been reached. Through this internship, I will be able to witness all aspects of victim support and representation and assess where the criminal justice system is lacking and where it is successful. Along with this, I will be doing my own research in which I review different studies about the criminal justice system and potentially interview important individuals within it to gain more insight about the topic at hand. At the end of these few months (10 weeks) in May, I will present on my findings and my experience as a whole.

I hope that you stay tuned to find out what happens on my journey ahead.

-Frida Guzman 

Last Week, New Stories

Oh hey there everyone! Welcome back to Frida Fridays on my blog! As some of you may know, my project is officially coming to an end, and this past week was my last official week on-site at my internship.

For this week, I decided to go back to my regular routine and go to my internship twice a week for 8 hours each day.

Wednesday (4/12/2017)

Wednesday was mostly filled with revocation hearings in which many inmates had family support, however the board deemed their offenses to be too severe for another chance at parole...


Thursday (4/13/2017)

Upon arriving, I went in directly to the board room because I was told a day before that a very important phase II would take place in the morning, and when I entered the room it was the hearing that had just started moments earlier... This was an important case to observe because it was a phase II hearing which means that the inmate was seeking to shorten or alter his sentence since he saw it as excessive. But in order for this wish to be granted, the inmate must first got through an initial phase I hearing in which the board must decide to pass his case on to a phase II which is then where they decide whether they would send a letter to the governor and recommend his case for the governor's approval to shorten or alter his sentence. So for this particular inmate, he was already 1/3 of the way there as he had already moved forward from a phase I hearing. It is arguable that the reason why he was passed on to a phase two is because again he had a major support system in the Arizona Justice Project.

So this inmate was initially convicted for two counts of rape, and the young 11 year old girl he raped was his step-daughter. Thankfully, after the board heard from the Arizona Justice Project and a few of his family members, an attorney from the attorney general's office came to speak on behalf of the state to further show why this inmate should not have a shorter sentence. His argument definitely helped sway the board to deny the recommendation.

After this whole debacle went down, I had the opportunity to interview the head victim advocate to see her perspective on victim treatment and representation.

Thank you all for reading, see you next time

-Frida

Victim's Strength During Victims' Week

Hello there everyone. It's nice to you all back on Frida "Fridays" on my blog.

This past week has very hectic and busy, and as a result, I went in to my internship four times this week. (although one of the days wasn't the actual internship facility, I'll get more into that later...) Also, I'd like to mention that this week (April 3rd-8th) is National Victims' Rights Week, a week to recognize those who have dedicated their lives to advocating and fighting for victim rights as well as the expansion of victim rights.

Over the last weekend, my on-site mentor sent me an email about a parole hearing that would take place on that Monday. For this reason I decided to go and check out this specific hearing.

Monday

Upon arriving to my internship Monday morning, I was a little startled with the sight of two victims nervously awaiting and strategizing with the victim advocate in anticipation of the parole hearing. I did not get much time to ask about the case or anything because moments after I arrived,  everyone rushed to the courtroom since the hearing was about to start. Now for some backstory, the two victims there were actually siblings to the actual murdered victim and were there to represent the will of their sister as well as represent the safety concerns of the community. Luckily for these victims, they were blessed with the unexpected opportunity of having a attorney from the attorney general's office there to advocate for the community's safety. Originally, the inmate and the victim were married since the victim was 14 and the inmate was 17 (because she got pregnant). To all it was unexpected what this rushed marriage would entail, but to the victim, it would turn into 15 years of physical and emotional abuse... Once the victim tried to seek help and move away from her abuser, the situation became deadly with the inmate coming to her house and shooting the victim, a random bystander, and then himself in attempts to take his own life. Two surgeries and one trial later, and he was only convicted for second degree murder and aggravated assault instead of first degree murder. After the board heard from both the victims and the attorney, they came to the conclusion to deny his chances at parole.

Tuesday

Tuesday was not an actual day spent at the office because it was actually the day in which a banquet/award ceremony type event would take place. At this event, there were a few keynote speakers like the governor, the attorney general, and other government officials who were there to acknowledge the efforts of different departments and present awards. The Victim Services (where my internship is) actually won an award for advocacy. It was definitely interesting, to say the least, to hear how far victims' rights have come overtime, and also to see how much farther victims' rights needs to grow... Anyways that pretty much sums up my Tuesday...

Wednesday

I don't know why this keeps on happening to me, but Wednesday was just another blur...

Thursday

My day was mostly spent watching a few revocation hearings before I had to leave early... I wish I didn't leave early because as soon as I left there was a hearing for a man who brutally murdered and raped two little girls (7 and 8 years old) along with cutting them up completely. Now this hearing was to see whether this man should be granted general parole since he had some how been let out for home arrest (to me that's actually insane!!). Apparently the board was appalled by the fact that he was on home arrest and were trying to figure out a way to reverse it . I don't know that is all I heard..

Well, that pretty much wraps up my week, I hope you enjoyed reading it and sorry for the delay

- Frida

Creepy Crimes and Creepy Panties

Oh hey there, nice to see you hear on another Frida Friday!

This week I went to my internship three times (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). Each day became more eventful that I guess I forgot what happened for the majority of the first two days...

Don't worry though, what I can remember is quite scandalous. In fact, the reason I came in on an extra day was because there was an important parole hearing where an attorney from the County Attorney's office would be there to support the victim's side.

Tuesday (3/28/2017)

On this day, I only fully remember one parole hearing that took place. This was a hearing for one of two brothers who at the the age of 19, beat, raped, and killed a women at a bar. These two brothers slit the young woman's neck all the way through to the spine after raping and beating her multiple times. I believe the brother received a harsher sentence of either life without a chance of parole or the death penalty. The inmate tried to convey to the board that he had changed and found God, and so on, however, while in prison he had countless amounts of infractions, major and minor, along with being in the Old Mexican Mafia. Clearly this type of behavior would leave anyone a bit unsettled to let him out of prison. To further assure that he not be released, a victim advocate spoke on behalf of the victim's mother by relaying  to the board the telephonic conversation she had with the mother. I guess one of the board members did not agree with that kind of delivery and started focusing and talking about that to the advocate instead of the actual case. (personally, it didn't really seem like the right time to discuss that, but moving on..) Next, the attorney spoke and took the case home; the inmate was denied parole..

On an unrelated note, I have noticed that the board tends to use the inmate's history prior to the current conviction as some sort of depiction of their current state instead of mainly focusing on what an inmate does while in prison. I have also noticed that the board rarely takes into account circumstances and situations in which people are placed in... Where does nurture v. nature come into play? I don't know these are just a few speculations...

Wednesday (3/29/2017)

It was all such a blur...

Thursday (3/30/2017)

What an intense day to say the least... It started off with a parole hearing for a man who was already on home arrest. He appeared to be doing great on home arrest but the board thought that six months was too little time to determine whether he should be put on general parole or not. 

After that hearing, a complete discharge hearing was supposed to take place, however, it was found out that the man had committed a crime while on parole and never told his parole officer and fully completed the probation for the new charge under a different name. Because of that, he got arrested (i witnessed it!) outside the court room.

Once all of that was settled and lunch had taken place, there was another total discharge hearing that would take place. This man was released on parole and was seeking complete discharge from the state so he could "travel" for work. (he was a subway employee, you should be able to see the irony soon). He was convicted for several rapes in the early '70s in which he would wear women's panties and aggressively rape young girls.  As of recently, he had many violations for being in contact with young children and for having sexual conversations on the internet (sexting himself cross-dressed) while on parole. This was definitely alarming since it was a similar pattern to his original crime(s) which only shows that he needs someone watching him (at least in terms of parole).  It was kind of funny that his subway boss was there to advocate for him because he ended up making himself not look so good as it came up that he allowed this man to be a general manager to employees as young as 16... creepy... 

What really had me unsettled was seeing one of his victims there having to relive her horrid experience from when she was just 14 years old, only to further show the board that this man is too perverted to be completely discharged... That woman's strength is inspiring; I do not know if I could be in the same room as my rapist like she was forced to do...

Thank you all for reading, and  don't forget to let me know your thoughts!

Frida 

Injustice in Justice

Hello World!

It is Frida Friday which means time for a new update on my blog. Thank you all for tuning back in, it's  much appreciated...

Wow. this week truly opened my eyes as to what the victims experience is truly like within the criminal justice system. Never before had I witnessed firsthand such questionable decisions made at the expense of potentially the general public, but more on that later... ( I want to dissect my week day by day if that makes any sense)

Wednesday (3/22/2017)

The day started with the typical victim-letter mailing and other administrative work which I have come to enjoy. Upon arriving though, I was notified that some sort of media crew would be coming later that day for some clips because the Victim Services had won some sort of award that will be awarded on April 3rd officially. I didn't think much of it since I didn't think I would be a part of the filming, but they wanted me to play the victim for a quick clip. Let me just say I don't think that Hollywood is in my near future, but hey it was fun.

Once all of that was over, I had to recount over 2000 ribbons for Victim's Rights Week because the inmates at Perryville Prison apparently aren't that great at counting (at least those who had to count/make the ribbons, then again there were 2000 and I too had trouble). It was hard, but you gotta do what you gotta do as they say.

Thursday (3/23/2017)

On thursday I was hit with a dose of reality. As excited as I was to see what the parole hearings are like, never did I imagine the intensity involved with each hearing.

The first parole hearing involved many parties, the victims family, a different victim's letter, the inmate, the inmate's mother, and the Arizona Justice Project (and obviously the Board of Executive Clemency).  The inmate was sentenced 25 years to life (with a chance of parole) for murder in the first degree. At the young age of 17, the inmate and two other friends would attempt to hitchhike and then eventually would end up killing the driver. What is especially interesting is that this was not their first time doing this.
 In fact,  they had been suspected of doing this similar crime along the same highway in Texas, but there wasn't enough concrete evidence. Also, all of their supposed victims had been killed (and died) except for one who somehow survived being stabbed 13 times. (this was the victim that wrote the letter to the board). Personally, after hearing this backstory, along with hearing about his initial psych evaluation where he mentioned having killing thoughts, and lets not forgot the testimony from the murdered victim's parents, I wouldn't let him out.
Fortunately enough for him though, the Arizona Justice Project, a legal and support team made up of ASU law students whose goal is to help certain inmates pro-bono). The board seemed to be very intrigued by this group. To me it seemed that this made the board members want to let him out because he had this extensive "support system."
When the inmate had a chance to speak, his main  focus was to show how well he had done in prison, not receiving violations, taking many classes, teaching classes, etc. In the prison, he was an example to follow. If I am being honest, I do not feel that life in prison and life in the real world are comparable whatsoever. There is much more of a sense of freedom and leeway when one as out; life is more gray than clear cut, but in prison, it seems like the lines are more defined since one is under 24/7 supervision.
Back to the case. From my perspective, the inmate kept dismissing what he had done "he was young", and then would move directly back to showing all of his accomplishments, almost treating this hearing like a job interview which is pretty ironic since he taught job-interview classes which would only add to the irony since he had never had a real job being locked up at 17.
What really got to me was that this man at 40 some years old, mature enough to understand the severity of his actions, was not fazed at all, throughout the entire hearing he maintained a stoic demeanor showing no remorse, and continuously blaming his actions on others and his age. I don't know about any of you but as a 17 year old myself, my idea of hanging out with my friends does not involve hijacking cars and murdering their owners. There really is no justification for murder. especially if it was not accidental. I am a firm believer in second chances, however to me, there is a difference with wanting to change your life and not recognizing the severity of your actions.

Now obviously the board decided to release him, although I disagree,  I hope he will behave while on parole, and is on the road to changing his life...

Apart from this hearing, I also had the chance to observe another one that definitely had me feeling some type of way to say the least.

This next hearing involved a man who had accidentally murdered someone and was sentenced to 25 years to life for first degree murder even though it was accidental. This inmate had formally requested an official translator (which is in the realms of his rights as an inmate), and instead, the board did not provide any sort of translator they just asked the CO on duty to translate last minute because he was hispanic. Unfortunately, this led to poor translation at the expense of the inmate. Although this inmate had a plan once he'd be released, it was not adequately portrayed by the CO,  and the board was not fully aware on what the inmate's plans were. Also, this parole hearing kind of took the turn for the worst when the board members found out that he was an undocumented immigrant; things became a bit more political in my opinion. One board member went on a rant on how this inmate does not respect the law of the land because he had illegally crossed over 30+ years ago, it seemed as though she was more enraged by his legality as opposed to the actual crime at hand. Now this inmate already had an ICE detainer, and had expressed his desire to return to Mexico, so if I was the one who was so irritated by "his lack of respect for the country", I would have had him released so he'd then be deported so tax dollars wouldn't have been "wasted" on his care in prison. But I guess the board had different plans.

Anyways, this week has really opened my eyes to seeing the injustices that exist on both sides of the
 criminal justice system.

Thanks for reading.

-Frida

Back to Business

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to another week and another Frida Friday on my blog.

This week I got the opportunity to see yet another side of how Victim Services works to facilitate a victim's experience within the criminal justice system in Arizona. On Wednesday, I  was allowed to attend a meeting in which individuals from other government agencies across Arizona came together to discuss different plans or forms of advocacy that would alleviate many problems victims face in the criminal justice system.  In this meeting, I was able to see how different agencies work together for a specific cause. For instance, different presentations were presented and updates were given to show the legislation and work that has been accomplished these past few months (these meetings happen every few months for these purposes).

After that meeting, I observed another one. This meeting had to do with organizing different training events to train people across all agencies so that they would be informed on the effects that different crimes can have on victims. Personally, I found this very important because I too believe that people should be taught how much impact domestic violence, sexual harassment, and other serious crimes can have on a person's life. This is definitely a huge way to inform others on what a victim goes through and it is crucial to not leave them in the dark so to speak.

Once all of the meetings were over, I worked more on letter sending and the excel stat spreadsheet that I had worked on in week 4. I actually really enjoy entering the stats into the spreadsheet even if it is long and tedious. In terms of revocation hearings, I did not see many this week, but Parole hearings are actually starting up next week, and don't worry, these will definitely give me a chance to tell a few interesting stories so my blog won't be so dry if you know what I mean.

So that is pretty much all that happened to me on-site this week. Get excited for next week's post for sure, there may or may not be something super cool in it.

Anyways, as always thanks for reading.

Peace.

- Frida

SPRING BREAK!

Behind the Scenes

Hey there, Welcome back to another Frida Friday!  I bet you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to read about what happened this week during my internship, I know I would be...

I know some of you are going to be quite surprised but this week I did not sit in and observe a single revocation hearing. For me, week 4 was more consumed with the administrative side of the internship. I helped with the victim notification process along with other things that I will get into.

'What is this notification process?', you may be wondering. Basically, the Victim Services has a data base in which they keep all the information of the victims and of the inmates in prison. Because the job of the Victim Services is to provide a sort of support and representation for victims, the advocates notify the victims when the inmate will be released on parole or released indefinitely, or if the inmate has any upcoming hearings, etc. This is usually done with a letter in the mail and/or a phone call. In the envelope, they include the letter (obviously), a paper defining the different types of releases, a survey, and a brochure (this all depends on what is going on with the inmate). Unfortunately, I cannot assist in the letter writing process since I can't have access to the database because of my age, but I was able to put the letters together and mail them out (I mailed 20+) as well as put the labels on the return envelopes.

Making Stacks

Stacks on Stacks

I also spent a good chunk of my time filling out the statistics of how many victims called in this month on an excel spreadsheet. Although this was quite time consuming, I liked being able to help in that way. I am not sure how much detail I can give away on the stats so I'll just leave you all with that bit of information.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that this upcoming week I will be on my spring break (like some of you) in Mexico, I'm not sure if I'm going to make a post or not so stay tuned for that... 

Also, I noticed that you may not be receiving a notification for when I reply to your comments so please look out for that because I do not want to leave any of you confused or with any questions.

Thank you all so much for coming back to my blog!

See you soon.

- Frida

Confidential Business

Hello Universe! Welcome to another Frida Friday, I'm glad to see that you have decided to tune back in to my blog!

First things first, I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous blogpost, but the reason most of my time at my internship has been spent observing revocation hearings is because parole hearings have been suspended until the middle of march. The reason for this is that there are only two active board members on the Board of Executive Clemency and the two new members are currently training for their new position. Now that that has been cleared up, lets get into what I did this week.

I'm sure you can guess what I did this week, more revocation hearings! Only one inmate did not get revoked this week. Honestly, I found this quite shocking especially since there was another inmate who absconded because he was in a coma, and he still got revoked... In my opinion, I feel like the inmate did not get revoked because his  father  who happened to be well versed was there in the courtroom to vouch for  his son... His father definitely made a good case for him, as the inmate barely spoke on his own behalf. I was a bit conflicted because this was not the inmate's first offense, in fact, it was his fourth time completing a sentence with the Department of Corrections. I honestly do not know what I would have done because, as someone who makes mistakes, I believe in 2nd chances, but do I believe in a fifth chance? That is yet to be determined...

Do not fret, that was not the only eventful moment this week. The very next day, a victim called with a question about counseling, but after speaking with the advocate for a few minutes, the victim brought up some concerning information... As of right now, I am unable to fully disclose what is going on because the Victim Services is currently working to help this victim. As soon as this passes over, I will tell you all more about the case. Sorry for the secrecy.

I have one more update to go over. After conducting the poll last week, I only had 3 individuals participate and because of such, I feel like it might have not been a popular idea so I will not be vlogging...

Thank you all for reading my blog, I hope to see you back next week!

-Frida

Deja Two

Hello Everybody! Welcome back to another Frida Friday on my blog!

During week 2 of my SRP journey, I came to my internship site twice for 9hrs each. Personally, I feel like coming for these 2 full days instead of three short days will let have a complete look on how the office runs throughout the day.

Now that I've cleared up my new schedule, lets get into what my week has consisted of research wise. 

Although this week had felt a little like last week in terms of what I did, the unique aspects of the different revocation hearings and the phone calls I witnessed were what made the week more intriguing.  From all the revocations that I've witnessed and watched, this week I saw two inmates not get revoked. This was extremely shocking to me since the inmates are usually revoked because they violated their parole frequently enough. So you must be thinking to yourself (or not), what made these cases different, well I'm not quite sure but lets dive in:

The first inmate to not get revoked (since I've been there) received violations for having negative UA (drug tests), and the drug of choice was HEROIN. I am not going to lie, it shocked me that the board gave him a second opportunity to go on parole despite the dirty UAs, especially since I had previously seen revocation hearings with a similar case that obviously got revoked. From what I observed, I feel as though the board's decision was based on the fact that he would not have been released from prison until 2019 and that he seemed very regretful and willing to change his life (I was kind of rooting for him), thus he was granted another chance.

As for the second inmate, he was violated for drug paraphernalia, specifically marijuana. According to the inmate, the marijuana did not belong to him. He said that he had given a friend a ride and that he left the drugs in the inmate's car. How was this found about? He was pulled over and his car was searched which led to the discovery of the marijuana. This was only his first time in the system and he had had no prior history with drugs...

Personally, I feel like the intensity of these two cases are very different. How does one with multiple negative UAs for heroin get the same punishment as someone who unknowingly possessed marijuana? Is possessing worse than using? Does race have any play in the situation?

I know that my main focus is on the victims, but I can't help but to speculate on such peculiar scenarios, if that makes any sense..

In regards to victim support, I witnessed a few phone calls between the advocates and a parole officer as well as another victim. These phone calls forced me to see how misinformed victims are as to what they can do to protect themselves, and receive help... Sometimes, victims are unaware that the Arizona Victim Services even exists. It is things like this that prove why my research is important in today's day and age.


Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope I catch you next week.

-Frida

P.S. I got a few requests to make vlogs, if you are interested in that, please indicate so in the poll.

My First Take from the Inside

Hello Everybody, I hope you all had a great week (especially Frida Friday) so far.

Thank you for those who are tuning back to my blog! It's nice to know I have somewhat of an audience...

As some of you might know, this was my first official week interning at the Arizona Victim Services, and let me tell you, there already is a lot more that goes on than what people expect. For instance, coming into this research project, I had no idea what the difference between parole and probation was or the difference between prison and jail (or that there was even a distinction to be noted).

For those of you who don't know (it's okay if that's you, that was literally me last week), one would be sentenced a period of probation instead of prison or jail time while one would go on parole upon his/her release from prison, and jail is typically in a local law enforcement/ government facility where someone would be held in anticipation to a trial or sentencing where as prison is where you will complete your sentenced time...

(I hope that made sense, if you have more questions or didn't understand it, please comment them below).

During the past few days that I have been at my internship, I have had the opportunity to  be an active observer. Now I know what you may be thinking, 'Frida, where are you going with this, what do you even mean?', well, let me explain.

In the mornings, I sit in and watch the revocation hearings.

So, what are these hearings?

Basically, if someone violates the terms of his/her parole, s/he is put back in prison, and then must face a hearing in which the Board of Executive Clemency will determine whether s/he should have another chance at parole or finish his/her sentence in prison.

How do the revocation hearings work?

The revocation hearings are held in a small court room where either supervised video-chats or phone calls are utilized in order for the Board of Executive Clemency to directly speak to the inmate and hear the reasoning that s/he have for violating the terms of his/her parole. These inmates can also have an attorney or have character witness advocate for them in person in the courtroom, but from what I have seen this is rare because I have yet to see an inmate have a lawyer represent them, and only two inmates of the many that I have seen in their revocation hearings have had family members act as character witnesses.

Once the revocation hearings are over,  I would get a chance to learn more about different cases that are currently happening or read on different reports or even listen in on my on-site mentor speak to victims either over the phone or in person. Listening to these conversations allowed me to see certain things that go on with victims. For starters, once the inmate is released, if the victims sign up to be notified, they will get a notification on the inmates release. But the victims are only allowed to know the general area of the inmates whereabouts. Along with that, they can file an order of protection. But from what I know so far (which is probably not enough to come to any conclusions), I feel like this is not enough to ensure the safety and mental sanity of the victims.

So far this has been my experience, make sure to tune in every Frida Friday (and don't worry I'll try harder to post earlier in the day)

Thanks for joining me

-Frida