BCR Reflection

Last night I attended the religion seminar “The Most Merciful: Muslim Work with Ex-Offenders” and it was one of the most interesting seminars I have been to. The four presenting panelists were able to share stories, opinions, and a lot of wisdom on topics that I have never been exposed to or even considered. At first, Dr. Harriet Lewis from the IMAN institute explained the difference that language can make. At the IMAN institute, the term ex-offender is typically replaced with “formerly incarcerated returning citizens” and even that change in language creates a different environment and view for those formerly incarcerated citizens.  Dr. Lewis set the scene describing the drastic differences among communities in Chicago. There is a 20-year gap in life expectancy between citizens of the north side of Chicago and citizens of the south side of Chicago simply due to the lack of access to resources that provide a healthy environment. A quote that stood out to me the most was “people say that we provide a second chance – we don’t – we provide the first chance that people were never given”. I think that as a society we tend to forget that there are people who haven’t even gotten a “first chance” and we tend to blame a person for their wrongdoing but we fail to approach and solve the issue of the environment that ultimately leads to this. Mr. Blackwell was the second speaker and he was the most enlightening and intriguing person to listen to simply because of his story.  Mr. Blackwell mostly opened my eyes to the fact that his faith was what changed his life and allowed him to reform during his time in prison. He mentioned that practicing Islam in prison is extremely difficult due to the prejudice against Muslims. It is outrageous that the bias of people can keep someone from growing in their faith especially while being incarcerated. So many opportunities for reflection, peace of mind, and growth are taken away. Overall, I think that this BCR was very eye-opening and has really sparked my interest for the rest of the semester!