Teas and Love as Courage

"To live takes an incredible amount of courage because it requires an ability to admit and to be honest that in all of us is potentially a Hitler and in all of us is potentially a Mother Theresa. And it is only if you learn what love is that you can continue to live, that you have the courage to do things for your fellow man without praise and without expectations." --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

Lemongrass Mint Tea

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Lavender Earl Grey Tea

The Missing Piece of the Conversation and Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Behind the Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Prison Population: A Conversation

Last semester, I attended the original panel discussion hosted at the Penn Law School concerning the Philadelphia Research Initiative report on "Philadelphia's Crowded, Costly Jails: The Search for Safe Solutions" (video of the conversation can be found here, link to a PDF of the full report can be found here). The report itself is a very clear and comprehensive picture of the Philadelphia jail population (though for a reason I still don't understand, the county jails in Philly are referred to as "prisons"). Specifically, the report focuses on the recent decline in jail populations, factors that contributed to the decline, and ways in which this decline can be continued. While much of the decline can be attributed to legislative changes that transferred inmates from county jail to state prison, other factors have contributed to the changing Philadelphia jail population. The panel answered a few questions at the event, but recently also responded to questions that were emailed in that could not be responded to at the event (the extended Q&A can be read here).

My question is why, in this discussion of crime and incarceration, the issue of juvenile incarceration was never mentioned. Seth Williams, in most of his public appearances, is sure to include a statement about how the one factor that most jail and prison inmates have in common is lack of education. However, the conversation falls short of addressing how to keep kids in school and out of juvenile detention before they become involved in the adult system. Most adults who are arrested have juvenile records-- either indicating that they are incorrigible, career criminals, or that they have already been failed by one system which effectively deposited them in another. In Philadelphia, the juvenile justice system is within the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services (what most people here associate only with child welfare). This may allow criminal justice experts to ignore it as a "human services" issue. However, a comprehensive discussion about causes and consequences of crime and incarceration in Philadelphia must (and usually doesn't) include a conversation about juvenile justice. I hope to explore the unique position of juvenile justice within DHS more in the coming weeks at my internship.

After this first week of work at the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research, I remembered how balancing an academic understanding of issues and deep appreciation of the humanity of the subjects of research is often difficult and taxing. In my emotional exhaustion, I made cookies.

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) butter, softened

2/3 c. white sugar

1/4 c. sifted confectioners sugar

2 1/2 tbsp. fresh lavender, chopped

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

Method

Cream together butter and sugars (another excuse to use the ever-amazing electric beaters, and the recently-acquired sifter).

Mix in lavender and lemon.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and salt, and mix.

Add flour mixture to butter until dough forms. Make two balls of dough, cover in plastic wrap, flatten and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325.

Remove dough from refrigerator, form small balls and flatten between your palms.

Place on baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on how toasty-brown you want the edges.

Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup and Stigma

With the end of summer, start of school frenzy that has been the past few weeks, I have sadly neglected to document some of the non-frenzied things that have come out of my kitchen. Instead of trying to catch up on the past 3 weeks all at once, I'll start with the past week and hopefully work backwards as time allows.



After a frantic schedule reorganization at the beginning of the semester, I found my way into a class called "Practice with At-Risk Youth". The professor and syllabus seem interesting and engaging, taking a social work perspective to the exploration of the issue of juvenile justice and other "at-risk youth" (I hope to unpack this term later). The first book that we were assigned for this class was the classic "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity" by Erving Goffman.

The book presents a fascinating investigation of personal and social identity, and the influence of stigma and stigmatization on various forms of identity and relationships. Published in 1963, the book occasionally reveals its age by dated word choice (or the absence of discussion of modern issues such as AIDS), but ultimately presents a completely relevant commentary on various forms of stigma and complicated identity politics.

Goffman utilizes examples such as individuals with physical disabilities, mental patients, deaf and blind individuals, and racial and religious minorities to demonstrate the complicated process of managing stigmatized identities in society. While Goffman only briefly mentions "criminal" as a stigmatized social classification, the observations of the book are easily applied to individuals who have been through both the juvenile and criminal justice systems. After system involvement, people are often physically and emotionally marked by the experience of incarceration. One of the most devastating effects of the stigmatization related to incarceration is the resultant difficulty in obtaining employment. All of the formerly incarcerated youth who I worked with last year identified employment as the key factor in successful reintegration or reentry into their home communities. They also asserted that due to the stigma of incarceration, gaining lawful employment was the major obstacle that they faced. Once labeled criminal, it is extraordinarily difficult to erase this label (and sometimes consequently, it is difficult to act as anything but).

One of the most interesting points that Goffman presents later in the volume concerns the fact that we often navigate between many identities, both personal and social, and that many people play the role of both stigmatized and normal. He elucidates:

"The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives. These are generated in social situations during mixed contacts by virtue of the unrealized norms that are likely to play upon the encounter. The lifelong attributes of a particular individual may cause him to be type-cast; he may have to play the stigmatized role in almost all of his social situations, making it natural to refer to him, as I have done, as a stigmatized person whose life-situation places him in opposition to the normals. However, his particular stigmatizing attributes do not determine the nature of the two roles, normal and stigmatized, merely the frequency of his playing a particular one of them" (Goffman, 1963).

It's interesting to consider the social situations that produce stigma, the repercussions of this stigma, and the various identities that we all navigate throughout different social situations. Overall, I'm excited to learn more from this class and read more authors that will hopefully help inform my perspective.

In celebration of the first week of classes, a few other social workers in my program decided to take some time away from our books and have a potluck. I was a little pressed for time (because I'd been reading this book...) and had leftover lemongrass from the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken I made a few nights ago (I'll detail my triumph over meat cooking soon), so I decided to make a simple fruit salad with a fancy, spicy-sweet syrup dressing.


Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup


Ingredients

1 quart strawberries, hulled, quartered
1 honeydew melon, chopped into 1" cubes
4 lemongrass stalks, bruised and chopped
2 habanero peppers, quartered, seeded
Zest and juice of 1 lime
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Handful of fresh mint

Method

For the salad: Cut fruit, slice mint, place in bowl and set aside (I told you it was simple).

For the syrup: I should have believed the man who sold me the habaneros who said they were really spicy. He wasn't exaggerating. I actually ended up doubling the rest of the recipe to make up for the unexpected heat.



Get out some aggression and bruise the lemongrass before chopping it up. It's fun, especially if you've been reading all day. Place chopped lemongrass, peppers, lime zest and juice, extra mint leaves, sugar, and water in a saucepan and boil until sugar is dissolved.


Reduce heat and simmer until syrup thickens, approx 8 minutes (I think I got through 2 songs on my iTunes). Remove from heat and pour into a bowl (if you're feeling extra-fancy: set in a bigger bowl filled with ice to cool). Pour the cooled syrup through a strainer, and when you are ready to serve, drizzle over fruit.