Brain Shrink, Think.

Five years ago I interned at a correctional facility as a young mental health therapist in New York. I wrote a blog post about my experience during that internship. If you want to check that out before reading this, check it out in the link below. "Experiences in the Correctional facility"  Since then, I have worked with individuals involved in the criminal justice system from children to adults. Recently, I have been working in a county jail for the last 2 years. Jail is not prison. It is a purgatory. People in jail are innocent until proven guilty. It's hard to keep track of that day by day. I have seen more about the process of mass incarceration. I have heard and sat with thousands of people at this point. The lives of these individuals are complex. Why they end up in these situations are often more complex. But the way we as society view them --- down to the coloring scheme of their jump suits are simple. Good or Bad. Orange and Black. Before I got involved...

I am Agnost ic and I have been for a long time. I grew up in a rural area in South Carolina.  Many of the individual’s in my town were generally warm hearted and caring about other people. There was interdependence among the members of the community. I think this was largely due to “your distress is mine” type attitude. This was largely taught in the Church setting. Most individuals generally went to church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. The pervasive religion in South Carolina is Christianity, primarily Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations.  I have no doubt that a religious upbringing influenced me in a lot of ways. Growing up in the Christian south has made being Agnostic something of an issue. Religion, especially Christianity, is baked into the way of life. It is just as integral as sweet tea, fried chicken, or polo shirts. To be --- or to identify as anything but religious is to often to be seen as a leper in a sense. This is not even incl...