Jason Rogel Book Report Tattoos on the Heart is a quintessential piece of literature that thoroughly demonstrates the necessity of reforming the American carceral system. The many stories presented throughout the novel share a common theme, that theme being the outdated, cruel, inhumane, and draconian nature of the modern American carceral system. The novel exposes the fact that justice focused entirely on retribution is not part of the solution in the question of how crime should be addressed. Rather, the novel emphasizes the role of empathy in dealing with criminal offenders, especially juvenile offenders. This empathetic approach is at multiple times demonstrably more successful in re-integrating offenders back into society. These stories …show more content…
Besides just not being able to administer help to a vast majority of addicted people, nearly the totality of patients, substance abuse treatment in psychiatric institutions has historically been unhelpful for those who receive it. This unhelpful nature, once again, is due to the fact that patients do not trust those who care for them, as explained. However, this also changes when care institutions adopt organized care policies, as many of these institutions did see tangible and beneficial change to those incarcerated. This is due to the fact that the care was removed from the concept of policing and jailing, and instead sought to pair the concept of care with rehabilitation and community (Levenson & Samra, 2023). This brings the discussion back to Rigo’s father. It is not unbelievable to say that if Rigo’s father was able to enter into an organized care program that truly sought to end his substance abuse issues, he would have left incarceration as a changed man in regard to his addiction at