Week 5 - Half-way Mark
Half way through the summer… where does the time go? This week I continued to look for organizations and individuals that would be interested in consulting on our project regarding gang violence and mass incarceration in Latin America. Although this issue affects various countries, there are not as many organizations or individuals that tackle this specific issue in Latin America as I would have imagined. Further, it seems that the countries that have made significant progress in the elimination of mass incarceration and overcrowded prisons, have been supported by local institutions such as universities. As I have previously mentioned in prior blog posts, education appears to be the most viable long-term solution for the problems that El Salvador has been facing along with many other Latin American countries.
Education is a solution that has been incorporated in other countries including Argentina. In Argentina the education programs are in-prison university programs which were implemented when the country, similar to the current state of El Salvador, over relied on incarceration and had issues with overcrowded prisons. The classrooms are built and then managed by the incarcerated students. The universities provide the tools and supplies to run the programs. These university programs have led to positive outcomes for alumni who have regained their freedom and who were able to participate in social, cultural and political work that impacted their community. In addition to providing education the university programs have tried to influence the creation of public policies to improve living conditions of the entire prison population. According to inmates the university is one of the few places where they are able to build a different, collective logic within the prison. It allows for the creation of a community without a correctional gaze.
However, like many solutions this one is still far from perfect. One of the issues here is that Argentina covers university education, making it free for its citizens. This is something that is uncommon in many other countries and therefore it may be difficult to encourage private institutions to allocate some of their funding towards assisting individuals that ultimately do not have the means to pay. There are various other obstacles that other countries would have to tackle, nonetheless Argentina demonstrates that there is hope.