About Me

My photo
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.

Introduction

Introduction to my blog:





This web blog follows my journey from England to the United States, where I will be meeting people who work within Youth Justice, predominately those who work with gang members both inside and outside prison.



My journey

My journey

Introduction

You can read more about me, the purpose of my trip, my story so far, what my plans are and what I hope to achieve in the supplementary sections below:



What I aim to find out more about

I propose to visit organisations and agencies and speak to individuals involved in working with the following:

  •  Children that are at risk of being involved in gang activity and live in areas with a high rate of crime
  •  First time young offenders who are involved in gang activity 
  •  Gang members who are currently carrying guns and live in high crime hot spots
  •  Gang members who are currently in prison
  •  Gang members that want to leave their gang safely
  •  Gang members who are seeking an alternative to life as part of a gang
  •  Ex gang members who want to help others to not follow a life of crime and want to share their story (scare tactics)
  •  Parents of gang members
  •  Family members of victims of gang violence
  •  Those who raise public awareness of youth violence in the community

I propose to visit these places and interview young people as well as staff about their experiences of the Youth Justice System. I am looking at how well they feel it is working, and if they feel the young people are adequately supported both in and out of prison to not return to crime once released. It is hoped that this would give me a better understanding of how it feels to be in the system as well as to work for it.

The aim of this being, to compare the current UK system to the way things are done in America, to gain a greater understanding of the way these gangs and young offenders operate in order to support them in a more effective way, therefore reducing rates of re-offending.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous29 August 2010 at 16:51

    These are extremely tough issues I commend you for pursuing ways to prevent gang violence and detering young people from joining gangs.

    ReplyDelete

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