As my semester comes to a close, everything is wrapping up and being tied away as neatly as possible. As such, my internship at the District Attorney has been completed. In a nutshell what I did with the DA was work with the Reentry Taskforce. We helped men and women who were coming out of incarceration get jobs, find housing, get into drug rehab programs, and start a new life. I did just about everything you can imagine in relation to that job – from working with drug councilors and doctors, to interviewing our clients, to sending faxes, to organizing and closing cases, and on and on. Needless to say, my knowledge of both the rehab clinics, and the employment and housing agencies in this area is much more extensive than before. The following are moments from my time spent there that I will never forget. (All names and locations have been changed for security purposes).
First day on the job I was whisked off to parole. I was fresh-eyed and innocent and didn't know much about what I would be doing, or what I was getting myself in to. My "welcome" to the office consisted of two security guards eyeing me with interest, and then kindly saying "welcome to hell." Good. It wasn't hell, exactly, but it certainly was bordering on right-around-the-corner from "the grass is greener on the other side" and down the street from "This ain't heaven, baby, so I'm goin someplace elseee."
My first miscreant (my fond name for our clients) sat and stared at me and refused to talk, and when he finally did spoke no English whatsoever and covered his mouth. I found out later that he was suspected of being an illegal alien and had a bad tooth.
First day on the job I was whisked off to parole. I was fresh-eyed and innocent and didn't know much about what I would be doing, or what I was getting myself in to. My "welcome" to the office consisted of two security guards eyeing me with interest, and then kindly saying "welcome to hell." Good. It wasn't hell, exactly, but it certainly was bordering on right-around-the-corner from "the grass is greener on the other side" and down the street from "This ain't heaven, baby, so I'm goin someplace elseee."
My first miscreant (my fond name for our clients) sat and stared at me and refused to talk, and when he finally did spoke no English whatsoever and covered his mouth. I found out later that he was suspected of being an illegal alien and had a bad tooth.
A couple weeks into the job I was at parole when we were all ushered in to the conference room. Everyone was extremely serious, and when a number of security guards filed in and told us that an assassination attempt had been called in, the place began to buzz. A parolee had been targeted by one of the gangs in the area, and the shootout was supposed to go down that day outside of parole. Continued next post
Wow, thats all I can think about when reading this. That is a hell of a first and a hell of a way to let you know how things work in your job. It looks like you got a lot of experience that will be priceless so congrats and hope everything works out Emily.
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