This study focuses on police brutality and its implications on communal and individual mental health, focusing on the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Using a mixed methods approach through the analysis of existing data and fieldwork the present study explores the mental health impacts of increased media exposure surrounding police brutality. Analysis on the mental health implications of police brutality was conducted through the use of a questionnaire distributed in the fall of 2021 and through fieldwork at George Floyd Square, the site of George Floyd’s murder and a public memorial space. The questionnaire was distributed at a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Out of 3,072 students, 948 filled out the questionnaire making a response rate of 30.86%. This questionnaire asked students about their concerns and the sources of stress they experienced in the context of George Floyd’s murder, uprisings, and trial, as well as its impact on their mental health. The fieldwork was done in order to assess how communal stress and trauma manifests in a community. While analysis of the data is ongoing, the researchers anticipate finding that increased exposure to media surrounding police brutality leads to higher self-reported subclinical psychiatric symptomatology. Preliminary findings of George Floyd Square fieldwork suggest that the experience of communal trauma creates a survival mentality among community members.

For many decades, as crime rates skyrocketed, prison rates were also beginning to increase to high numerical numbers, where incarceration facilities began to get overcrowded. As a response to this issue the United States became one of the most countries known to have the second most incarceration and recidivism rates. Many of which include lower crime misdemeanors inmates, and falsely accused minority individuals being locked up. The governmental systems that include the Federal Government and Criminal Justice Systems in most situations have those that work within them and still believe in biased beliefs against the innocent. The motivation and purpose of my research is to compare a variety of different rehabilitation incarcerated programs such as those that provide better academics, mental health services, and victim/offender advocacy. I will achieve this by gathering information and analysis data from previous academic journals that are written from a series of Criminologists, Psychologists, and Sociologists, data on incarcerated inmates, government funding, recidivism rates, and medical conditions to investigate the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs in reducing incarceration and recidivism.

This study examines the intricate relationship between voter suppression, prison gerrymandering, and mass incarceration as tools of racial control designed to uphold white hegemony. Prison gerrymandering, an unintended consequence of the prison-industrial complex (PIC), artificially inflates the political power of predominantly rural, white areas while suppressing representation in urban communities, often with large Black populations. Furthermore, felony disenfranchisement laws, originally intended to prevent newly freed enslaved people from voting, are now disproportionately applied due to the wars on crime and drugs, further distorting voting demographics and representation. Major corporations like CoreCivic, the GEO Group, and the Management & Training Corporation form the backbone of the PIC, a network of private industry and government entities profiting from incarceration. These corporations exert undue influence over legislation and policy decisions, perpetuating the expansion of prisons, intensifying surveillance of formerly incarcerated individuals, and promoting policing and surveillance as primary solutions to political, social, and economic issues. The consequences of these interconnected systems are far-reaching, undermining civic engagement, eroding democratic legitimacy, and silencing the voices of marginalized communities, particularly Black Americans, in decisions that directly impact their lives. Keywords: Voter suppression, Prison Gerrymandering, Mass Incarceration, Racial Control, Prison-Industrial Complex, Felony Disenfranchisement, White-Collar Crime

Between 1991 and 2007, the incarceration rate for women rose one hundred and twenty-two percent compared to seventy-seven percent for men. Sixty-one percent of the women incarcerated have minor children and three to four percent enter prison pregnant. Incarcerated women have limited access to reproductive health care and are exposed to many risks that can lead to compromising a healthy pregnancy. Given their increased risk for poor pregnancy and birth outcomes, this population may benefit from prenatal programs (e.g., education, birth support) that aim to reduce risk and promote health. There are currently no national healthcare standards for incarcerated people; care and treatment vary considerably across states. As such, understanding the laws and policies that relate to perinatal programs for this population is an important first step for guiding future policy and practice. This policy analysis reviews current state laws related to perinatal programs for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated people. A national search of state laws was conducted using WestLaw. Laws were then coded for content related to specific aspects of care and treatment (e.g., nutrition, prenatal care). For the current study, laws that included codes related to “perinatal programs” were further analyzed in Dedoose. After conducting this analysis, we expect to find few states that have laws pertaining to access to perinatal support programs, despite their likely benefit for maternal and child health.