This spring I was lucky enough to land an internship at a local non-profit called HOPE for Prisoners. HOPE for Prisoners is a re-entry program that is dedicated to assisting ex-convicts with getting back on their feet in hopes of keeping them from reoffending.
Going into this internship I already carried a very strong belief that re-entry is crucial. After interning for HOPE I can only further support my belief. Tons of men and women get released from prison only to end up back behind bars simply because they have no support and no way to navigate society. The case managers at HOPE want and try so hard to make sure their clients feel welcomed and comfortable enough to confide in them during times when they might not be doing so well.
With very little experience before the start of my internship, I was concerned as far as how well I would get along knowledge-wise. There is a lot I did not, and still do not know and I was worried I would fall behind. The staff at HOPE was so helpful and informative in all things I didn’t have a clear understanding of. They always welcomed my questions and answered them as clearly as they could. With that being said, if I could give pre-internship me any advice, I would recommend getting more familiar with the local criminal justice system here in Vegas. By that I mean I would get familiar with the different incarceration and transitional centers here in Las Vegas. Other than that, I believe a lot of the information you learn and such are things you kind of just have to pick up along the way. There was a lot of paperwork that I wasn’t familiar with which I am sure also has to do with my lack of experience. Overall, it was definitely a welcomed learning experience that I really just needed to go into with an open mind.
At UNLV I am currently working towards my bachelor's in psychology as well as my bachelor's in criminal justice. My internship at HOPE was able to utilize both of my fields of study. Criminal justice, more obvious, because every client we worked with had gone through the criminal justice system. Psychology, on the other hand, is more underlying in a field like this, but still very real and very important. Throughout my college career, I have done assignments and written papers around the idea of re-entry and how important it is to treat these humans like they’re humans rather than like they’re criminals in order to decrease recidivism rates. How I think this internship will benefit my future career because although I do not necessarily want to work in this type of case management in the long run, I would love to contribute to re-entry in one way or another and I think being given this internship really helped me solidify that it is something I would like to be able to move forward with at some point.
Lastly, as briefly mentioned, this is not the career I see myself in in the long run. Though if I were to pursue a career at HOPE for Prisoners I would wait until I am done with my bachelor's and hopefully on the road to a graduate program. I think knowledge of our criminal justice system is very important. I also don’t necessarily think HOPE would be the best place to get beginner experience as a case manager, ONLY because it is a non-profit so there are only so many case managers and their caseload can be quite overwhelming. I would prefer to get at least a year of case management experience somewhere elsewhere with a less daunting caseload.
Overall, I am very grateful for the time I spent with the HOPE for Prisoners team and I will continue to spread the importance of programs like this whether my career takes me that way or not.
