I made it home safe and sound on Saturday afternoon to be met at the airport by my relieved parents. I was sooooo knackered after the 10 hour flight but in true Donna style I didn’t sit down, I unpacked straight away and headed for Tesco to pick up some essentials. I was so tired I didn’t even realise that I did not have my purse with me until I got there and had to drive home and get it! Food shopping done ,I came home and went through my suitcases; I had bought sooooo much back I had to buy some more coat hangers for my new clothes lol!! I then attempted to sleep on Saturday night but it just was not happening, I managed to get about 3 hours sleep and was up at 4.30 doing my exercises on the Wii Fit, then doing the hovering and pruning the hedges at 7.30 am. I bet the neighbours thought I was crazy; I was like a woman possessed!! Lol!!
Monday was a bit of a shock to the system going back to work, but I somehow managed to get up at 6am every day and do the Wii Fit before work, it paid off too I lost 3lb of holiday tummy!! This week has been abit of a blur though as I think I have been jet lagged through most of it but am just about getting myself sorted out and have received a letter from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust welcoming me home and asking me to draft a press release which I will be attempting to complete this week as well as emailing them my photos. I am also planning on sending my thank you letters out this week too to all of the people that made my trip such a success. I am so glad I have tomorrow off work to chill....
About Me
- Donna Marsh on Gangs
- My name is Donna Marsh and I currently work as a Registered Mental Health Nurse in a Prison working mainly with young offenders with mental health problems. I have worked with young people for the past 7 years and find this client group very interesting. With the rise of knife and gun crime in England, I have many dealings with gang members and find it fascinating to find out why young people join gangs and engage in this kind of gang activity. Due to this, I have also been involved in the making of a DVD to raise awareness of knife crime in the UK in conjunction with the prison and a local school, this has been distributed to schools and Young Offenders Institutes across the country.
My journey
Sunday 29 August 2010
Thursday 19 August 2010
Homeward bound....
WOW!! What a journey the last 6 weeks have been not to mention all the time leading up to this with all the planning and preparation that had to take place. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my travels and am so grateful to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for allowing me to fulfil my dream of taking on this research. I have had some ups and down along the way but the majority of time was plane sailing! I managed to achieve most of the goals that I set out to accomplish and visited such a variety of different organisations and facilities to get a wide range of different perspectives on the magnitude of the gang problems in the states that I visited. Everyone I spoke to was so willing to help and show me their organisation and in many cases had contacts with others that I attempted to visit but unfortunately I did not have time to see them all.
It amazed me to see that in many areas that I visited the gang problems were generational and many of the young people’s mothers, fathers and in some cases grandparents were gang members. These young people are often the hardest to reach as it is so much a way of life for the whole family and there is no positive role model in their life to show them a different path that does not involve violence, drugs and guns. This is where many of the agencies I visited stepped in to be that positive influence to help to guide and support the young person and show them that they have the potential to achieve whatever they want to if they put their mind to it.
All the states that I visited had different gangs that were the most active in their area for example in New York it was both Black and Mexican gangs, Miami were mainly Haitian and Mexican and in LA it was mainly Black gangs. However more or less everyone who I have met has said the same thing about why these young people get involved in gangs in the first place: it starts in the home!! Your surroundings, the way you are bought up and education play a major role in shaping your future. Many of these young people have been bought up in violent, abuse homes with absent parents who are working too hard to notice what their child is doing, is involved themselves or on drugs then they are unable to provide the child with the right guidance and discipline as they get older and the child then looks for another role model and finds it in a gang and so the cycle begins...more needs to be done to educate this parents into the signs to watch out for in the child so that they can spot if the child is involved in gang activity as it is surprising how many parents have no idea! They also need to be guiding in how to spent quality constructive time with their children as many of the gang members who I have spoken to whose parents are involved in this world said that the only time that that parent had to spend with their child was when they were out on the streets so they in turn became and gang member in order to get closer and feel that love from their parents.
It has been a fascinating journey but one that I have learnt much from not just about gangs, how they operate and why the young people join in the first place but about myself. This for me has also been a journey of self discovery and I feel that I have learnt much about myself along the way such as being comfortable to talk and hold my own in a crowd of people I have never met before, feeling confident in meeting and speaking with gang members and professions and often talking about quite sensitive issues. My confidence has grown so much over the last few weeks. I have also learnt that I can actually read a map and navigate myself from place to place; I don’t know what I would have done without Google map!!! I will be very sad to say goodbye to America but have the feeling it won’t be long before I return again....
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me through my journey I really appreciate all of your love and support and I will continue to blog when I get home to keep up to date with my progress.
It amazed me to see that in many areas that I visited the gang problems were generational and many of the young people’s mothers, fathers and in some cases grandparents were gang members. These young people are often the hardest to reach as it is so much a way of life for the whole family and there is no positive role model in their life to show them a different path that does not involve violence, drugs and guns. This is where many of the agencies I visited stepped in to be that positive influence to help to guide and support the young person and show them that they have the potential to achieve whatever they want to if they put their mind to it.
All the states that I visited had different gangs that were the most active in their area for example in New York it was both Black and Mexican gangs, Miami were mainly Haitian and Mexican and in LA it was mainly Black gangs. However more or less everyone who I have met has said the same thing about why these young people get involved in gangs in the first place: it starts in the home!! Your surroundings, the way you are bought up and education play a major role in shaping your future. Many of these young people have been bought up in violent, abuse homes with absent parents who are working too hard to notice what their child is doing, is involved themselves or on drugs then they are unable to provide the child with the right guidance and discipline as they get older and the child then looks for another role model and finds it in a gang and so the cycle begins...more needs to be done to educate this parents into the signs to watch out for in the child so that they can spot if the child is involved in gang activity as it is surprising how many parents have no idea! They also need to be guiding in how to spent quality constructive time with their children as many of the gang members who I have spoken to whose parents are involved in this world said that the only time that that parent had to spend with their child was when they were out on the streets so they in turn became and gang member in order to get closer and feel that love from their parents.
It has been a fascinating journey but one that I have learnt much from not just about gangs, how they operate and why the young people join in the first place but about myself. This for me has also been a journey of self discovery and I feel that I have learnt much about myself along the way such as being comfortable to talk and hold my own in a crowd of people I have never met before, feeling confident in meeting and speaking with gang members and professions and often talking about quite sensitive issues. My confidence has grown so much over the last few weeks. I have also learnt that I can actually read a map and navigate myself from place to place; I don’t know what I would have done without Google map!!! I will be very sad to say goodbye to America but have the feeling it won’t be long before I return again....
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me through my journey I really appreciate all of your love and support and I will continue to blog when I get home to keep up to date with my progress.
A perfect end to a perfect trip
Wow what an amazing week I have had. Seen so much this week! I spent some time sightseeing and doing my last bits of shopping (can’t believe my suitcase is still within the weight limit....just!! lol!!). I first went to Long Beach to meet one of my contacts who works for the Boys and Girls Club. This club works with children from 6-18, providing a safe and secure environment for them to come and participate in various self esteem and confidence building programmes. This club also runs after school programmes to help children with their homework aswell as running other education based programmes to teach the young people about various computer programmes, gender specific issues around safe sex, and drug and alcohol misuse and health and fitness programmes. Unfortunately I was not able to see one of these programmes in action due to the fact that it is the summer holidays and these classes are normally run in term time but it was very interesting to speak with the leaders of some of these programmes as they said that many of the young people that attend their classes are involved in gang activity and have very difficult often abusive home lives so coming into such a programme gives them a safe and secure environment for them to be able to gain skills for the future.
I then spend some time with the Hollywood Division of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department). This was very interesting, I went on a ride-along with them for a few hours with the Gang Unit and I was shown where most of the gang activity in Hollywood takes place and which gangs occupy which areas. It was fascinating to me because I had always thought of Hollywood as very glitzy and full of celebrities but I was shown a very different poverty stricken side of it that day and it was a very eye opening experience. During my time with the Gang Unit we stopped off at the Summer Nights Programme in Lemon Groove. This is a programme that started 3 years ago throughout the summer holidays to bring the community together. It runs from 6pm until midnight and is a place for all that live in the community to come and hang out together, the children place sports and there is music and entertainment laid on. It has a really good atmosphere and appears to be very successful. There are also 3 Gang Activists who are themselves ex gang members that attend on a nightly basis to speak to gang members and try and help them out of the life violence and gang activity. I had the chance to speak to these men and they said that each one of them have been gang members for a number of years they themselves found it very hard to leave that lifestyle behind them and stated that even though they are no longer ‘banging, you can never fully get out of the gang’ which I found very interesting. They now work with youth in an attempt to try and break the cycle of the gang violence.
Over the weekend I went on an amazing tour called LA Gang, wow it was great!!! We were given a tour of South Central LA by 4 ex gang members who have come together to raise awareness of the growing gang problem in these areas. We went all around the area to Watts, The Watts Towers, LA County Jail, Florence Avenue and Firestone Sheriff Station all being historical places relating to gang involvement and the riots in the early 1990’s. It was an extremely interesting day and very interesting to hear from the ex gang members some of whom had done up to 24 years in prison. These men now visit schools and other areas to try and educate young people on what the gang lifestyle is really like and tells them the grim reality of if they continue with the life style that they are leading it can only end two ways: jail time or death!! After the tour we went to the Graff Lab where young people from all over LA and at times the world come and graffiti on the walls of a disused area that has now been purpose designed and cleared by the County so that they can graffiti without any repercussions. The graffiti stays up for up to a week and then it is painted over by another artist. The place was fascinating, I really enjoyed it there and the graffiti is amazing! People were also rapping and street dancing there too it was amazing to watch. There was a guy there doing a massive mural of Michael Jackson and he gave me one of the paint brushes he had used that the signed which was cool!
I then visited the very well known Homeboy Industries, what an interesting place that was! They recruit ex gang members to work there and have a bakery, restaurant and merchandise shop. It was a fascinating place where they provide so many services from legal advice, counselling, mental health support to tattoo removal, all free of charge. They even have and did have while i was visiting, a group of young people from the boot camp in LA that come still hand cuffed and shackled to get their gang tattoos removed! It was amazing to see. I also met and had a brief chat with Father Boyle who started the programme 23 years ago, he has now written a couple of books about his journey one of which i bought and he signed while i was there which was great.
My final and probably my favourite in LA was the 77th Precinct Gang Unit. Wow what an amazing day!! I got to spend the whole shift with the team and went everywhere they went, it was incredible. We had a debrief first to see what was going on and the officers in charge explained that 3 raids would be taking place and told each person what their role was then at the end went through what to do it shots are fired, dogs are shot and the directions to the nearest hospital, OMG I was scared at that point!! We went out to the car and on the way the sergeant explained to me that if shots are fired at the car I had to get down in the car in the area that was bullet proof! OMG WHAT WAS I LETTING MYSELF IN FOR!!! Luckily no shots were fired but all of the police were armed in some cases with more than one gun! It was so exciting to see. One man was taken into custody and we headed back to the station to debrief on what had happened and improvements that could be made. Afterwards the sergeant showed me around the area and where all the gang members hang out and where the enemy lines are. Got to speak to a couple of gang members who were in the area, one of whom had a tattoo of his gang on his eye lids, how painful would that have been!
After my ride-along the sergeant took me to the LA County jail for a look around, it was 11 pm and we just turned up and they gave us a tour. It was brill but could not believe that they inmates were still out and about at that time of night and some of them were even being transferred, it was like it was the middle of the day, so different to where I work! Another very interesting facility that holds around 5000 inmates within the prison that is also attached another prison for mental ill prisoners holding around 1500!! Fascinating!! A great ends to my time in LA.
I then spend some time with the Hollywood Division of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department). This was very interesting, I went on a ride-along with them for a few hours with the Gang Unit and I was shown where most of the gang activity in Hollywood takes place and which gangs occupy which areas. It was fascinating to me because I had always thought of Hollywood as very glitzy and full of celebrities but I was shown a very different poverty stricken side of it that day and it was a very eye opening experience. During my time with the Gang Unit we stopped off at the Summer Nights Programme in Lemon Groove. This is a programme that started 3 years ago throughout the summer holidays to bring the community together. It runs from 6pm until midnight and is a place for all that live in the community to come and hang out together, the children place sports and there is music and entertainment laid on. It has a really good atmosphere and appears to be very successful. There are also 3 Gang Activists who are themselves ex gang members that attend on a nightly basis to speak to gang members and try and help them out of the life violence and gang activity. I had the chance to speak to these men and they said that each one of them have been gang members for a number of years they themselves found it very hard to leave that lifestyle behind them and stated that even though they are no longer ‘banging, you can never fully get out of the gang’ which I found very interesting. They now work with youth in an attempt to try and break the cycle of the gang violence.
Over the weekend I went on an amazing tour called LA Gang, wow it was great!!! We were given a tour of South Central LA by 4 ex gang members who have come together to raise awareness of the growing gang problem in these areas. We went all around the area to Watts, The Watts Towers, LA County Jail, Florence Avenue and Firestone Sheriff Station all being historical places relating to gang involvement and the riots in the early 1990’s. It was an extremely interesting day and very interesting to hear from the ex gang members some of whom had done up to 24 years in prison. These men now visit schools and other areas to try and educate young people on what the gang lifestyle is really like and tells them the grim reality of if they continue with the life style that they are leading it can only end two ways: jail time or death!! After the tour we went to the Graff Lab where young people from all over LA and at times the world come and graffiti on the walls of a disused area that has now been purpose designed and cleared by the County so that they can graffiti without any repercussions. The graffiti stays up for up to a week and then it is painted over by another artist. The place was fascinating, I really enjoyed it there and the graffiti is amazing! People were also rapping and street dancing there too it was amazing to watch. There was a guy there doing a massive mural of Michael Jackson and he gave me one of the paint brushes he had used that the signed which was cool!
I then visited the very well known Homeboy Industries, what an interesting place that was! They recruit ex gang members to work there and have a bakery, restaurant and merchandise shop. It was a fascinating place where they provide so many services from legal advice, counselling, mental health support to tattoo removal, all free of charge. They even have and did have while i was visiting, a group of young people from the boot camp in LA that come still hand cuffed and shackled to get their gang tattoos removed! It was amazing to see. I also met and had a brief chat with Father Boyle who started the programme 23 years ago, he has now written a couple of books about his journey one of which i bought and he signed while i was there which was great.
My final and probably my favourite in LA was the 77th Precinct Gang Unit. Wow what an amazing day!! I got to spend the whole shift with the team and went everywhere they went, it was incredible. We had a debrief first to see what was going on and the officers in charge explained that 3 raids would be taking place and told each person what their role was then at the end went through what to do it shots are fired, dogs are shot and the directions to the nearest hospital, OMG I was scared at that point!! We went out to the car and on the way the sergeant explained to me that if shots are fired at the car I had to get down in the car in the area that was bullet proof! OMG WHAT WAS I LETTING MYSELF IN FOR!!! Luckily no shots were fired but all of the police were armed in some cases with more than one gun! It was so exciting to see. One man was taken into custody and we headed back to the station to debrief on what had happened and improvements that could be made. Afterwards the sergeant showed me around the area and where all the gang members hang out and where the enemy lines are. Got to speak to a couple of gang members who were in the area, one of whom had a tattoo of his gang on his eye lids, how painful would that have been!
After my ride-along the sergeant took me to the LA County jail for a look around, it was 11 pm and we just turned up and they gave us a tour. It was brill but could not believe that they inmates were still out and about at that time of night and some of them were even being transferred, it was like it was the middle of the day, so different to where I work! Another very interesting facility that holds around 5000 inmates within the prison that is also attached another prison for mental ill prisoners holding around 1500!! Fascinating!! A great ends to my time in LA.
Thursday 12 August 2010
The Bakersfield Experience
Wow what a busy few days!!!!! I came up to Bakersfield, which is 2 hours north of LA on Sunday to meet one of my contacts, George, who works in Juvenile Justice as a Probation Officer. He said he had arranged various meetings for me in some of the organisations that they have here to deal with young people who are coming into prison for the first time as well as those who are involved in gang activity. On Sunday night i met him for the first time and he took me to his house to have dinner with his family which was absolutely lovely, they were so welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a great ice breaker.
Bright and early Monday morning George had arranged for one of his colleagues to pick me up and show me around some of the organisations that they have. We visited about 7 places in the day; it was such an eye opener. The services that are provided are quite varied and many of them are faith based but they all have the same goal: to support young people and to stop them for being caught up in the cycle of crime and gang activity.
I spoke one young man who was attending the Bridges Programme. This is for young men and women who are not able to attend mainstream school due to their behaviour, they support young people, offer counselling, one to one support and small education classes so that they can get the help that they need to get the education that they need to succeed. This young man was an active gang member and had many gang related tattoos on his face and arms which were relating to his gang. He had been a gang member for the past 4 year and now at the age of 17 he was attempting to get help from this service to get out of the gang. He appeared to be making good progress and since he had been attending the programme he has applied to have his tattoos removed so that he can get a job and not been seen as a gang member. According to the staff at the organisation he had been a very active gang member in the past and his father was also heavily involved in the gang so they were very pleased that after spending time in juvenile facilities, seeing his friends get shot and being shot at himself this man had come to the decision to leave his gang and was making active steps to make this happen.
The following day I visited Juvenile Hall, wow what an eye opener that was!!! One of the organisations Crossroads was run very much in a military style. The inmates, who are under 18 have to march and chant various messages and wear a uniform with the name sewn onto it. They look very smart as they walk around the campus, hands behind their back. Their beds and cells are also extremely tidy as they are inspected every day and have to be perfect otherwise there were consequences. I was shocked at the level of discipline in the facilities; I had never seen anything like it! All of the young men that I met were so polite and very well mannered. So interesting! It was sad to see some of the young men were still children at aged 13, they looked so young! At the facilities I visited the young people attended education daily and were allowed to do jobs around the facility such as sweeping the yard and cutting the grass. In one of the facilities they also had a separate area for females that provided them with specific counselling sessions and support for those who have been involved in abuse from a young age.
On the third day I visited Wasco State Prison. WOW!!! The facility is massive! All the inmates walk around in bright orange jump suits and are there for a variety of crimes. They are there mainly for a short term before they are moved onto other establishments after they have been classified as to their level of danger relating to their crime, to serve their sentence. I was surprised to see that when the inmates come into the facility they really do have to do the ‘squat and cough’ to check them for contraband and it is in front of all the other inmates! I also saw the very evident racial segregation on the yard; they really do keep to their own race. The alarm went off while we were there to because there was a medical emergency and all of the inmates had to lie on the ground arms out stretched. Due to lack of space in the facility some of the areas have been made into dorm areas, that is 200 prisoners in one area with the freedom to walk around if they want to even though they are not supposed to and one officer to watch them! I couldn’t believe that! It looked like such a dangerous situation but the officers said that they do not have many problems in those areas. If they do though and a fight breaks out they have a number of officers that can attend and the inmates are then taken to spend time in the segregation area where they stand in mental cages for 4 hours at a time.
My whole experience in Bakersfield has been such an eye opening but fascinating experience! I have very much enjoyed myself here and have seen so much that I haven’t even had chance to document on here such as a mock Call in based on Operation Ceasefire, where they bring in professional and active gang members in the community and offer them alternatives to the gang lifestyle, again another fascinating experience. I was exposed to sooooooo much and I thank the Juvenile Probation Team in Bakersfield for all their help and support. I am now back in LA ready to visit some of the organisations that I have been in contact with here.
Bright and early Monday morning George had arranged for one of his colleagues to pick me up and show me around some of the organisations that they have. We visited about 7 places in the day; it was such an eye opener. The services that are provided are quite varied and many of them are faith based but they all have the same goal: to support young people and to stop them for being caught up in the cycle of crime and gang activity.
I spoke one young man who was attending the Bridges Programme. This is for young men and women who are not able to attend mainstream school due to their behaviour, they support young people, offer counselling, one to one support and small education classes so that they can get the help that they need to get the education that they need to succeed. This young man was an active gang member and had many gang related tattoos on his face and arms which were relating to his gang. He had been a gang member for the past 4 year and now at the age of 17 he was attempting to get help from this service to get out of the gang. He appeared to be making good progress and since he had been attending the programme he has applied to have his tattoos removed so that he can get a job and not been seen as a gang member. According to the staff at the organisation he had been a very active gang member in the past and his father was also heavily involved in the gang so they were very pleased that after spending time in juvenile facilities, seeing his friends get shot and being shot at himself this man had come to the decision to leave his gang and was making active steps to make this happen.
The following day I visited Juvenile Hall, wow what an eye opener that was!!! One of the organisations Crossroads was run very much in a military style. The inmates, who are under 18 have to march and chant various messages and wear a uniform with the name sewn onto it. They look very smart as they walk around the campus, hands behind their back. Their beds and cells are also extremely tidy as they are inspected every day and have to be perfect otherwise there were consequences. I was shocked at the level of discipline in the facilities; I had never seen anything like it! All of the young men that I met were so polite and very well mannered. So interesting! It was sad to see some of the young men were still children at aged 13, they looked so young! At the facilities I visited the young people attended education daily and were allowed to do jobs around the facility such as sweeping the yard and cutting the grass. In one of the facilities they also had a separate area for females that provided them with specific counselling sessions and support for those who have been involved in abuse from a young age.
On the third day I visited Wasco State Prison. WOW!!! The facility is massive! All the inmates walk around in bright orange jump suits and are there for a variety of crimes. They are there mainly for a short term before they are moved onto other establishments after they have been classified as to their level of danger relating to their crime, to serve their sentence. I was surprised to see that when the inmates come into the facility they really do have to do the ‘squat and cough’ to check them for contraband and it is in front of all the other inmates! I also saw the very evident racial segregation on the yard; they really do keep to their own race. The alarm went off while we were there to because there was a medical emergency and all of the inmates had to lie on the ground arms out stretched. Due to lack of space in the facility some of the areas have been made into dorm areas, that is 200 prisoners in one area with the freedom to walk around if they want to even though they are not supposed to and one officer to watch them! I couldn’t believe that! It looked like such a dangerous situation but the officers said that they do not have many problems in those areas. If they do though and a fight breaks out they have a number of officers that can attend and the inmates are then taken to spend time in the segregation area where they stand in mental cages for 4 hours at a time.
My whole experience in Bakersfield has been such an eye opening but fascinating experience! I have very much enjoyed myself here and have seen so much that I haven’t even had chance to document on here such as a mock Call in based on Operation Ceasefire, where they bring in professional and active gang members in the community and offer them alternatives to the gang lifestyle, again another fascinating experience. I was exposed to sooooooo much and I thank the Juvenile Probation Team in Bakersfield for all their help and support. I am now back in LA ready to visit some of the organisations that I have been in contact with here.
Thursday 5 August 2010
Goodbye Miami, hello LA
This week has been great!!! I have really enjoyed myself and been soooo busy. I did abit of sight seeing and saw the Stars houses on Star Island here, Carmen Electra was sunbathing in her garden which was cool!! On Tuesday i visited an organisation called Panzou Project which is an organisation for Haitian gang members to get help and support for issue relating to education, job skills and training, conflict resolution and family support. They also employ ex gang members to help in the organisation. One such member runs the Screen Printing. He makes t-shirts for the organisation as well as for local business and this is becoming quite a successful part of the organisation. Panzou are also hoping to rent another office next to where they are already based and turn it into a music studio which would be a real asset to the community as many of the young people that use that organisation enjoy making music but do not currently have anywhere to use this talent.
This week i have also visited the Miami Dade Police Head Quarters and met with one of the Lieutenants of the Gang Unit. That was very interesting to meet up with him and talk about all the different areas in Miami that are affected by gangs and gang violence. He has a task force of 6 officers, a Sergent and a Lieutenant that work in the county to identify and combat the gang issues in Miami. I was then fortunate enough to be able to go on a ride along with one of the detectives in the Gang Task Force. I was in my element, we went all over Miami and he showed me where all the gang members hang out and where they make their deals of guns and drugs. When we were driving down the street even though we were in an unmarked vehicle they knew the car and were shouting 'PO PO' as we drove down the street to warn others that police were in the area. It was fascinating!! It was also very sad to see the level of poverty in some of these areas and it was easy to see why some of the young people who live in these areas felt that they had no way out.
On my last day in Miami i went back to the Juvenile Assessment Centre for a Gang Awareness Training session and to meet others in the field of gangs in Miami. It was great to meet other members of the Gang Unit Task Force and hear their point of view on the subject. It appears to me that Miami does have a gang problem but it is not like the problems experienced in New York, LA and Chicago. Here they are very much on top of the situation and do alot of undercover work and make good links with informants who provide them with alot of useful information.This Task Force have regular meetings to discuss the current trends and who the main guys to keep an eye out for are so they are aware of the risks when they are approaching a situation and know what types of weapons these individuals are carrying, as guns here are very easy to come by.
I have found Miami a very interesting place to be. I very much enjoyed visiting all the different agencies that work with gangs in this area and i was surprised and very pleased at how open they were at having me visit their organisation at such short notice. Everyone has been very helpful and welcoming and has shared much information with me that has been very interesting.
I am off to LA in the morning, the last stop on my tour. I cant believe the time has gone by so quick, i have loved every minute of it though and am looking forward to seeing how different LA is compared to New York and Miami.
This week i have also visited the Miami Dade Police Head Quarters and met with one of the Lieutenants of the Gang Unit. That was very interesting to meet up with him and talk about all the different areas in Miami that are affected by gangs and gang violence. He has a task force of 6 officers, a Sergent and a Lieutenant that work in the county to identify and combat the gang issues in Miami. I was then fortunate enough to be able to go on a ride along with one of the detectives in the Gang Task Force. I was in my element, we went all over Miami and he showed me where all the gang members hang out and where they make their deals of guns and drugs. When we were driving down the street even though we were in an unmarked vehicle they knew the car and were shouting 'PO PO' as we drove down the street to warn others that police were in the area. It was fascinating!! It was also very sad to see the level of poverty in some of these areas and it was easy to see why some of the young people who live in these areas felt that they had no way out.
On my last day in Miami i went back to the Juvenile Assessment Centre for a Gang Awareness Training session and to meet others in the field of gangs in Miami. It was great to meet other members of the Gang Unit Task Force and hear their point of view on the subject. It appears to me that Miami does have a gang problem but it is not like the problems experienced in New York, LA and Chicago. Here they are very much on top of the situation and do alot of undercover work and make good links with informants who provide them with alot of useful information.This Task Force have regular meetings to discuss the current trends and who the main guys to keep an eye out for are so they are aware of the risks when they are approaching a situation and know what types of weapons these individuals are carrying, as guns here are very easy to come by.
I have found Miami a very interesting place to be. I very much enjoyed visiting all the different agencies that work with gangs in this area and i was surprised and very pleased at how open they were at having me visit their organisation at such short notice. Everyone has been very helpful and welcoming and has shared much information with me that has been very interesting.
I am off to LA in the morning, the last stop on my tour. I cant believe the time has gone by so quick, i have loved every minute of it though and am looking forward to seeing how different LA is compared to New York and Miami.
Monday 2 August 2010
Networking in Miami
This week has been fun, a couple of my friends came over to Miami on holiday for a few days so met up with them a couple of times which has been really nice and have seen the sights of Miami. Went on a couple of trips around the place to see the main attractions and cant believe how friendly and welcoming some people are. I went on one trip on my own and ended up chatting to a girl on the trip who was on her on too and we ended spending the whole day together and meeting up the following day before she went home. That was really nice, now i have a new friend in Charlotte which is cool!
I also visited another organisation. As a result of my trip on Monday, i have now been able to able to set up a couple more visits as the Director at the Juvenile Assessment Centre had a few contacts and forwarded them to me which was really helpful. I contacted them and was able to organise a visit to Turner Guilford and Knight Correctional Facility so that i could attend a group that is run there by a lady called Barbara Wade. She is very active in working with gang members both inside and outside prison and attends the Prison twice a week to run this course. It is called RESPECT and is for young boys from 14-17 to learn life skills. It was a very interesting experience as the prison is very different to the one in which i am working and the client group is much younger. All of the young people that i spoke to were on remand and had been at the facility for a considerable length of time.
The group consisted of 12 young people and a the beginning of the session everyone stood up and repeated a verse about respecting each other and having a positive attitude to centre the group and focus on the session. Afterwards everyone sat in a circle and we spoke about the gang problems and what it was like for young people living in that type of life style. It became quite apparent to me that many of these young people, prior to coming to prison had never left their neighborhoods and they said that many of them had very unstable family life's with absent parents, drug issues and younger siblings to look after. Due to this many of them no longer attended school and gravitated towards the gang lifestyle as they were looking for somewhere to belong, someone to care for and love them and were searching for that feeling of being wanted and needed. It was a very interesting discussion and was good to hear it from the young people themselves. They were very welcoming to me and when it came to asking me questions, many of them did not know anything about England and where abouts in the world it was and for many of them it was the first time they had heard a British accent and some struggled to understand what i said. It was sad to see to as their world prior to now had only consisted of a few square miles of their neighbourhood.
This was a very worthwhile session to attend. From this contact with Barbara, she then set up a meeting for me for this week with the Gang Task Force in Miami which i am very much looking forward too.
I also visited another organisation. As a result of my trip on Monday, i have now been able to able to set up a couple more visits as the Director at the Juvenile Assessment Centre had a few contacts and forwarded them to me which was really helpful. I contacted them and was able to organise a visit to Turner Guilford and Knight Correctional Facility so that i could attend a group that is run there by a lady called Barbara Wade. She is very active in working with gang members both inside and outside prison and attends the Prison twice a week to run this course. It is called RESPECT and is for young boys from 14-17 to learn life skills. It was a very interesting experience as the prison is very different to the one in which i am working and the client group is much younger. All of the young people that i spoke to were on remand and had been at the facility for a considerable length of time.
The group consisted of 12 young people and a the beginning of the session everyone stood up and repeated a verse about respecting each other and having a positive attitude to centre the group and focus on the session. Afterwards everyone sat in a circle and we spoke about the gang problems and what it was like for young people living in that type of life style. It became quite apparent to me that many of these young people, prior to coming to prison had never left their neighborhoods and they said that many of them had very unstable family life's with absent parents, drug issues and younger siblings to look after. Due to this many of them no longer attended school and gravitated towards the gang lifestyle as they were looking for somewhere to belong, someone to care for and love them and were searching for that feeling of being wanted and needed. It was a very interesting discussion and was good to hear it from the young people themselves. They were very welcoming to me and when it came to asking me questions, many of them did not know anything about England and where abouts in the world it was and for many of them it was the first time they had heard a British accent and some struggled to understand what i said. It was sad to see to as their world prior to now had only consisted of a few square miles of their neighbourhood.
This was a very worthwhile session to attend. From this contact with Barbara, she then set up a meeting for me for this week with the Gang Task Force in Miami which i am very much looking forward too.
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