Tag: Criminal Justice

books, Children with Incarcerated Parents, Criminal Justice, Education

Using FROM THE DESK OF ZOE WASHINGTON to Teach About Criminal Justice

pbrunskill

If you’re considering using literature to help middle schoolers critically engage in learning about criminal justice, From the Desk of Zoe Washington is a great vehicle to do so. I wrote a blog post with many suggestions for incorporating this book into the classroom and with middle schoolers. Click here to read it.

From debut author Janae Marks comes a captivating mystery full of heart, as one courageous girl questions assumptions, searches for the truth, and does what she believes is right—even in the face of great opposition.

Children with Incarcerated Parents, Criminal Justice, Parenting, Uncategorized

Visiting Prison: The Endless Wait

Pamela Brunskill

I published an essay with The Osborne Association as part of their #SeeUsSupportUs campaign.

This one’s about the degrading treatment one receives when visiting a loved one in prison. If you haven’t joined #SeeUsSupportUs already, please consider doing so to support families coping with having an incarcerated loved one.

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Here’s the beginning of the essay:

I got the feeling nobody wanted to be at Clinton Correctional Facility in the summer of 2003. Not the guards. Not the incarcerated. Certainly not me. Yet my sister and I drove there for the weekend because we wanted to see our dad for the first time in years.

The Sunday of that visit, we arrived at 7:45am in hopes of getting in at 8:30—we had a seven-hour drive back to Buffalo and wanted to leave by noon. We received visitor pass #56.

There were no signs telling us where to go, where to wait, what to do. Just a room of silent women, some with children, some itching to go outside and smoke.

To read the rest, go to http://www.osborneny.org/news/voices-from-see-us-support-us-pamela-brunskill/.

 

Children with Incarcerated Parents, Criminal Justice, Uncategorized

Family Separation Because of Incarceration and Detention at the Border Is Taking a Toll on Children

Pamela Brunskill

“Whether separated due to immigration or incarceration, these children are in limbo.”

I have a new article on Teen Vogue this week that compares the long-term effects the trauma children at the border are facing to the trauma children with incarcerated parents face. Can the empathy shown towards children at the border be extended to children with incarcerated parents?

Click here to read the article!

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acceptance, shame

The Long-Term Effects of My Father’s Actions (HuffPost Personal)

Pamela Brunskill

I published an essay on HuffPost Personal this week:

My Dad Killed Two People When I Was 15. Here’s Why I’m Finally Ready to Accept Him.

In my struggle to disassociate myself from him, I had dehumanized myself.

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I was 15 when my father killed my stepmother and her lover in 1992. While I was walking with friends around school after a homecoming game, he walked in on the couple making love in his house in western New York, and he shot them.

 

When my mom sat me down the next morning to tell me what she knew, waves of coldness washed over me, and I stifled the urge to throw up. Unable to process the magnitude of what he had done, it is only now that I can identify my revulsion, shock, sadness and confusion over his actions…(click to read the rest on HuffPost)