Interrogating Incarceration
by Lucy Stein
Lucy Stein (she/her) is a junior at Friends Seminary high school in New York City. Lucy is an active participant in the debate team, mock trial club and mentor for younger children competing in model congress. In recent years Lucy has discovered her strong passion for advocacy, criminal justice and criminal justice reform. This passion for social justice originated with her discovery of books that portrayed the traumatic experiences of those in the prison system, especially those of minority groups.
Lucy has undertaken a comprehensive exploration of the issues surrounding mass incarceration, racial inequality, and the impact of incarceration on individuals and communities. Her investigations into the conditions at Rikers Island and the campaign to close the prison down, as well as the challenges faced by incarcerated women, and children of incarcerated parents, speak to the depth of her unwavering dedication to creating a more just and equitable society. Lucy hopes to raise awareness within her community and work with others to improve the prison system.
The Project
In this project we aim to use a community participatory research methodology to better understand the history, stereotypes, and lived experiences that lead to higher disciplining rates in schools and greater representation in the school to prison pipeline.
Through an intersectional lens, we aim to produce a podcast that chronicles the experiences of Black women and girls with diverse relationships to the carceral system.
The goal of this project is to raise awareness about the short and long term experiences that lead Black women to be overrepresented in the school to prison pipeline and elevate existing and emerging public policy recommendations that reflect the injustices of this system.
