Gun Control Essay, Research Paper

AMERICAN VALUES

MOTHER?S DAY IN FEDERAL PRISON.

Responsive reader questions 1-3.

What would you include in capsule portraits or thumbnail sketches of the women inmates Coyne describes in her article? What kind of people are they?

Included in a capsule filled with the portraits or thumbnail sketches of the women inmates, Coyne describes in her article, at Federal Prison Camp for women in Pekin, Illinois would be many personal items. One thing would be certain is that the Mother?s Day flower given to the mother?s would be included in the capsule. Next the dress made by the inmates would be included for two reasons. The first reason is to show that the inmates did not have to be in prison uniforms for Mother?s Day and second to show how important Mother?s Day is to the inmates. The clothing they wear symbolizes their excitement about Mother?s Day and the hard work the inmates put into the preparation of the important day.

A good portion of the inmates in the minimum-security prison are

normal women that were either in the wrong place at the wrong time or made a mistake in life. Yet when they are with their families on Mother?s Day it looks seems to be as if the prison doesn?t truly exist, do to the amount of joy filling the visiting room.

Is there a common element or common denominator in the histories of the inmates? Is there anything to be learned from their stories?

The common element that happens to be in the histories of the inmates is that they are not hard core criminals. If anything most of them are innocent, and only guilty of helping a love one with no idea of what was happening. In fact the main thing said by the families of the inmates is why should my love one be in here when there are worse criminals in the world.

From all of this one can learn that no matter how well you know someone always ask why. If half of the women in this article just asked why they more or likely would not be in the position they happen to be in their present state.

In what ways is the jail Coyne visited ?a woman?s world?? Which of the scenes or details Coyne records do you think would be missing or different in the visiting room of a prison for men?

The jail Coyne visited is a woman?s world do mainly to the fact that it is a woman facility. For instance if one was ever to visit a prison for men on fathers day the men would not be getting flowers, nor would they be taking their kids in their arms and smelling every body part they own. Also it is very unlikely that the men would be stylish in their clothing due to the fact they more or likely don?t know how to create clothing.

TIME

Responsive Reader questions 1-3

Can you empathize with the author of this account of prison life? Why or why not? What kind of person is he? How did the prison experience affect him? How did it shape his attitude toward life?

If you were ever in a bank that was being robbed while you were there 99.9% of your emotions would be that of fear. In that same sense one can not empathize for the author of this account of prison life. Because of his wrong doing he has scared people for life about the idea of ever entering a bank again. He had done a crime in which he got caught and had to do the time. He seems to be a very kind and intelligent person, yet maybe a little to immature and one that is more of a follower than a leader. Other wise he would have set an example with Tony and brushed him off. This time in prison affect and shaped his attitude toward life. First he had a lot of emotional things to deal with. One was about the fact that his lady left him for another man. That of all must be the worst thing one must go through while in jail. Yet in another sense he created a greater connection between himself and God. While in jail he was able to increase his knowledge in the literary would and also in the spiritual world.

How do the different inmates McCall remembers deal with ?doing time?? How do they cope? What strategies do they develop, and how successful are these?

From what McCall said it seems that all the inmates or a good portion of the inmates deal with their time through emotions. Some of the men just sit there and take it but others try and kill them selves because its to hard. Yet a good portion of the inmates deal with it through anger and taking it out on other people. Really none of them cope with the time, they have really no choice but to do it, and that?s what in angers them. Some of the things they do, are keep journals, play chess, work out and other stuff. Yet like all things you can only do it for so long till it gets boarding so most of the strategies they develop are not all that successful.

Many stories of prison life focus on trying to survive in a brutally violent environment. For the author, what is the point of the story he tells about his confrontation with Tony? What is the point or the lesson of the story for you?

The point of the story McCall tells about his confrontation with Tony describes how hard prison life is. In the real world he might never have actually threaten Tony?s life, yet in prison you can not be seen as a week individual. In prison week individuals are the ones that get taken advantage of in more than one way. The reason for this is that the inmates know that no matter what they do to this person they wont retaliate. The story points out that under any circumstance of prison life and no matter how much you say you wont become like the other prisoners you always will.