Today we will continue with the Classical essay. The freewrite is to use the article I gave students last week, which you outlined in groups to write a classical argument.
The question is: Is imprisonment ever justified given Francisco Carillo's story (see "LA Man Freed After Wrongful Conviction"). Is as Angela Davis, prison abolisionist and scholar's statement: "Prisons are obsolete" true?
2. TKW
3. WLTC -- drawing or illustrating arguments
4. Homework
5. Robert King's Book: From the Bottom of the Heap
6. Peer Review of Classical Essay
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Dennis Foley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
April 12th 2011
Are Prisons Obsolete?
The prison system has its problems; however the fundamental use of prisons is still necessary. There needs to be a place to put dangerous people to keep others safe. The logic being it’s better to restrict the rights of criminals in order to let citizens have rights. The only other way besides prisons to do this would be a typical “wild west” setting where every one has a gun and can protect themselves. However this would result in more innocent and non innocent people dying.
Frena Zamudio
ReplyDeleteSophia De Claro
Professor Sabir
English 5
12 April 2011
Freewrite: Angela Davis
In the article, “LA Man Freed After Wrongful Conviction”, Francisco "Franky" Carillo, 37-year-old Southern California man spent 19 years in prison for a drive-by killing and was freed days after most of the witnesses at his trial recanted testimony. Although freedom and justice are now served, his detention is still not reasonable because the picture that was used against him was taken outside by police as Carillo was riding his bike through a park and also, a Superior Court judge did not agree to hear the evidence that could have proven him not guilty 19 years ago.
Angela Davis, a prison abolitionist and scholar’s statement: “Prisons are obsolete” is not true because she is basically saying that prisons do not exist. She also says that prisons are old-fashioned, but it is not true because prisons still happen today, we still convict people who go against the law and put them in prisons.
Andrea Giang
ReplyDeleteRicarda Lathrop
Professor Sabir
English 5
12 April 2011
Imprisonment is not always justified. Francisco Carrillo was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit for 19 years before he was released. Although prisons are useful institutions to keep dangerous people from society, there are still improvements needed in our justice system to prevent the imprisonment of innocent people like Francisco Carrillo.
In Carrillo’s case, the justice system didn’t take into account all the witnesses to the crime and the police misled the witnesses into identifying the culprit. The judge had refused to listen to another witness’s testimony on the day of the sentencing, leading to the conviction of Carrillo.
We believe that the police and the district attorney were blinded by the stereotypes associated with Carrillo’s appearance and behavior as well as his history with well-known gangs. It is frightening to think that stereotypes play a role in our justice system even though everyone should be treated equally. Therefore, they should be allowed a fair trial where they are innocent until they are proven guilty by solid evidence.
Even though people are sometimes wrongfully convicted for a crime they did not commit, prisons are not “obsolete” as Angela Davis stated because there needs to be a place to keep criminals off the street. The idea of prison is not a mistake. Moreover, our justice system and the funding for prisons should be reinvented.
Quan Lin/ Andre Tom
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
12 April 2011
Are prisons obsolete?
Prisons aren’t obsolete, rather they are flawed. A wrongful accusation happen occasionally and usually in extremely rare occasions, but however happens nonetheless. But that doesn’t mean that it’s obsolete, nothing has a hundred percent success rate, and the prison system is no different. To say a prison is obsolete is essentially the same as calling a school obsolete. Both these institutions have its own problems and flaws, however to say that it’s obsolete and not necessary to society is completely preposterous! Yes, a man was wrongfully convicted for 19 years; he is only one man in comparison to the millions of murders locked up. Statistically speaking, as immoral as it sounds if one out of a thousand murderers were wrongfully convicted, it is something that society can live with.
Dylan Young
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
April 12, 2011 Free write
I disagree with Angela Davis’s statement that prisons are “obsolete”. Today’s prison system is over populated and under funded. Prisons hold a very important place in our society today. Without them the justice system would be weak and criminals would have no punishment. Today’s prison system is frowned upon because of wrongful convictions such as Francisco Carrillo’s. Errors in convicting criminals due to over crowding have made it hard for completely fair and honest trials to happen but wrongful convictions are only a small portion out of many right convictions. If prisons were to be completely obsolete our world would look very different today, you cannot see the prison system at work in our society because it keeps people away but its keeping many dangerous people off of our streets.
Jaiver Chavez
ReplyDeleteEnglish 5
Professor Sabir
Freewrite
Imprisontment can only be justified when it is an unbiased and fair system. Yet in today’s society people often get incarcerated for a crime they did not commint. For example there is the story of Francisco Carrillo who was wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years for a drive by killing that he did not commit. He was sent to jail because of the flawed judicial system that we have in our country, the witness didn’t see the actual shooter, but knew that Carillo was part of a gang they did not like, so said he was the shooter. When people can lie under oath and send an innocent man to jail; the prison system is flawed.
jeff & ocean
ReplyDeleteThe way prison are designed today they are very obsolete, because their purpose of rehabilitation and punishment has disappeared. If your life is based around criminal activity prisons have now just become a vacation and training ground. The people that are incarcerated for crimes that are not part of their usual lifestyle seem to suffer while the real criminals gain strength.