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