Imprisonment of our minds

In this post I would like to look at prison’s in a mental state as well as a physical state. We are moulded to believe certain ideologies, ways of doing things, what innocence means, and what guilty means. Through societal structures we are taught how to live our own lives, and how to judge other people’s lives. Foucault in his work analysed prisons but his focus was not on “institutions, theories, or ideologies, it was about practices (Foucault, 1999).” Foucault felt that it was the practice of imprisonment that was important, as this is what generated social identities and produced knowledge and practice (Foucault, 1999).” This can be true of social work practices, if we strictly look at only the institution than we are taking away from the practices which directly create the oppression to marginalized groups.

We can look at imprisonment of our own minds as social worker’s. How have we come to know what we know? We can say it is from educational institutions. But to look more deeper we can see it is the practice of “teaching” and its historical roots that have given us the knowledge that we have. If we want to remove oppression from the “teaching” process, teachers have to be educated about historical oppressions faced by populations that they serve, as well as the social issues they teach. If they neglect to learn about the oppressions than they are replicating historical oppression. One clear example of this that can be seen in Canadian society is the teaching of Aboriginal culture and history within the school system. Students are being robbed of learning a true history of Aboriginals, the teacher’s are replicating oppression, and students are leaving educational institutions and continuing to replicate oppression in the agencies they work in. The only way to break free from this mental prison is to learn a different type of knowledge and to re write this knowledge and combat dominant western discourse. It is also important to implement teaching and learning in our social work practice. As critical social workers we have a privilege in society in going to university and becoming educated. We also have a duty to our clients to help them learn about historical oppressions they may face. Rossiter speaks of “trespassing” and how when social workers engage in this activity they may do harm (Rossiter, 2001). Rossiter’s article speaks of “the trespasser is a “lawful citizen” who, because well disposed toward the low, daily becomes the agent of injustice (Rossiter, 2001).” It is important for us as social workers to know when we can “trespass” and what tools we will share with our clients so that they will be able to advocate for themselves, and continue to have support in their lives. We cannot simply teach a homeless client about oppressions in societal structures and leave them without tools, and without support, that would be a huge disservice.

Sudbury speaks about the incarceration of women in relation to neo-liberal globalization, complex relations between state penal institutions, politicians, and profit driven corporation, as well as the emergence of US-led global war on drugs as a reason for the increased number of women in the prison system (Sudbury, 2005). As social workers we are not always aware of social issues in a global sense. We localize many issues, and don’t think about the broader affects that these social issues have. This is true of imprisonment of women, particularly the imprisonment of Aboriginal women and women of color. Both groups are highly represented in the criminal justice system. As critical social worker’s it is important to look at why this is occurring. Sudbury points out that “black women and women of color are the new raw material that fuel prison industrial complexes (Sudbury, 2005).” These women are used to work in prison workshops which in turn generate millions of dollars in profit. As social workers we cannot ignore the world around us, the borders of our knowledge should not stop at our own country. We need to know how actions of our governments, corporations affect individuals within our country and outside of our country. We must also recognize how our money and actions plays a part in these oppressions and how we are aiding the oppression.