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The Wrongfully Imprisoned Holy Angels Middle School: Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

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Lizbeth George English 8-2 The Wrongfully Imprisoned Holy Angels Middle School April 17, 2024 The Wrongfully Imprisoned A big issue I’m noticing in the novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is that mass incarceration occurs not only due to misguided drug policy or excessive sentencing but also due to the number of people who are declared as poor or mentally ill and are just thrown into jail as their next resort instead of sending them to therapy to guide them. Furthermore, sometimes prisons are used as a substitute for therapy when someone has what is deemed as a mental illness. Consequently, prisoners often come out with their mental health worsened, creating more chances of that prisoner going back to jail again. To start, Stevenson states: …show more content…

Stevenson backs up this idea by asserting: “We started an investigation for which we interviewed over fifty women; we were truly shocked to see how widespread the problem of sexual violence had become. Several women had been raped and become pregnant. Even when DNA testing confirmed that male officers were the fathers of these children, very little was done about it.” (Stevenson 205). This confirms the theory of women being more vulnerable to sexual assault when incarcerated. This angers me as women are powerless in this situation, have to conform to the opinions of the police and are trapped in an unsafe environment with officers who can blackmail and exploit them. Also, women cannot escape this situation and cannot even feel somewhat comfortable. This travels back to the idea of their mental health being impacted in an environment where women constantly feel watched and uncomfortable. In a final analysis, the novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is packed with reasons and raises the question of why certain groups are being wrongfully imprisoned, either due to gender, race, or a psychiatric disability, along with a multitude of other discriminatory factors used to wrongfully confine

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