My weekly dose of Justice

Howdy all. This week was a particularly fun and productive week outside of work. At work, I have basically been playing phone tag with witnesses trying to track a complainant down with no success. So let’s just squawk a little bit about the goings-on outside of work.

This weekend my roommate’s dad flew in from Canada. He was in the area on business—or was supposed to be. His trip was cancelled and he had the tickets, so he came for a long weekend. It was great to be able to meet him. He is a case study in what my roommate will look like few years down the line. They look exactly the same. What’s more, he VERY generously entertained us with dinner (I am not sure I have paid that much for food this entire summer—hyperbole? Don’t be so sure…). In all earnestness, thank you Mr. Johnson for a wonderful evening!

Anyway, enough of the previous malarkey. Once again I went to the same church in Fairfax County. I am ecstatic because the pastor allowed me to borrow the audio CDs from a conference put on by Morningstar Ministries on Faith Healing. I am pretty sure my roomies thought I had lost it when they found me loading those up to my computer the other night. I am surprised it took them that long to question my sanity…Anyway, after church I went out to eat with a friend, Donald, who is from the Congo. We were celebrating the new job that he got. He has been in the area for over a year looking for a decent job. He is totally legal and has all of his papers in order. He is very qualified, articulate, and competent. In fact, he even received his Master’s in the US. He has just had a hard road. It is just a tragic fact that our country is xenophobic. It is even worse in Donald’s case, as he also encounters racism. This is something I am not used to witnessing, being from Iowa, which can be said to be almost homogenous demographically. So it is very eye-opening, and I must say hard, for my naïve eyes to witness racial prejudice when it is displayed. Of course, I am not exempting myself, because I inadvertently stereotype as much as the next person who has not walked in another’s shoes. I am just saying, now that I live in an area where I am the minority I can’t be oblivious to it when it occurs.

On Monday, the Law and Criminal Justice programming for The Washington Center was very entertaining and informative. The Arlington K-9 unit came for a demonstration. There were two deputies that lead the presentation. Deputy Varius and…I can’t remember the name of the second one. Deputy Varius got a little rowdy, but overall, he was a very well behaved dog. You read me right. I wrote dog. I guess I didn’t realize that they have to deputize a dog in order for it to perform police functions. It makes sense when you think about it. That way it can assist in lawful searches and seizures of person and property. Deputy Varius was a black lab, very smart and entertaining. He was a neutral response narcotics dog... He is trained not to bark, bite or scratch. He sits when he finds something. Apparently dogs can be used to sniff out about anything. The human deputy talked about narc dogs, chemical weapon dogs, biohazard dogs, and explosives dogs. The two most crazy ones he mentioned where cancer and disease sniffing dogs and cadaver dogs. I hope I don’t have need of either of those two in the near future.

The speaker in the presidential lecture series was Shelia Johnson. Quite frankly, this lady was impressive. She is a mogul of mega magnitude. She owns the following teams: The Washington Mystics (WMBA), Wizards (NBA), and Capitols (NHL). She is also the co-founder of the Black Entertainment Channel (BET). Just for the record, she disowns the current image of that network.

By far, the best part of my week is the National Institute of Justice Conference that my office allowed me to attend. It was three days of nonstop criminal justice sweet learning. It really was an incredible opportunity to educate myself on what is cooking in the criminal justice field. There were several themes in the conference which focused on how science and technology are starting to change the face of criminal justice. Crime mapping was all the rage. There were nine classes offered on it. I only attended one, since I have no plans to be a crime analyst in the near future. However, it was incredibly interesting. With developing technologies, crime data is getting easier to collect and analyze on a local, state, and national level. The fact is that policy decision making is going to become even more data-driven in the future as more, clear data becomes the expectation. If you are going to go into criminal justice, just keep that in mind. And if you are going work for the government in criminal justice, definitely get ready.

What is really cool is that several offices within the Office of Justice Programs (the one that contains my office) gave a presentation on Prison Rape Elimination (PREA) findings, which is all the rage in my office right now. It has kept me busy all summer with research and analysis. Right now we are preparing a report of policy recommendations for Congress. They were presenting findings of a few parallel reports. I took down their policy recommendations for PREA and I plan to share them with my supervising attorney just for kicks.

I also learned about various after school programs for at-risk youth and whether or not they impact crime reduction. I have very good impressions about the effects of these kinds of programs (if run properly). There is one in my hometown that I used to help with. I saw the day-to-day results with the children. Although I have no numbers to back me up, I have experiences to say that this stuff can really have positive impact. That is one of the reasons why the trend toward the numbers is a good deal. If you have the data to back up your word, you can get policymakers’ attention and cooperation.

There was also a very neat class on how local law enforcement is using the internet as a tool for law enforcement. There is so much in this category that I am just going to skip it altogether and talk about the sweet armor testing DVDs that I wanted to take. They had all of these booths with crazy robotics, body armor, microwave guns, with free DVD demonstrations. I felt like it was a real life HALO game.

The best segment, at least for my tastes was one on prisoner re-entry programs. After learning about various programs available for prisoners about to re-enter normal life, the audience was dazzled for the remainder of the segment. Check this out: the Prisoner Entrepreneur Program (PEP). An incredible prisoner re-entry program in Texas. This 6-figure financial guru toured a prison in Texas and saw that all of the inmates were adept businessmen, but their efforts were misdirected. So she just moved to Texas, raised the funds, and started a faith-based entrepreneurial training program for inmates approaching release. This program is comprehensive, highly selective, and highly successful. It reaches well beyond the prisoner’s release. It is just downright impressive. I can’t rave about it enough. Let me just put it this way, I have become well acquainted with the many ills inherent in the Texas correctional system this summer so this is very heartening to me. In fact, I have pretty much made up my mind that I have to figure out how to land an internship there next summer.

Speaking of prisons, one of my roomies and I rolled on out to Foundry Methodist Church after work today to participate in their Books for Prisoner’s project. I came across the first week I was in town. I was lost trying to find The Washington Center’s building and decided to stop into a nearby church to check out their service schedule. It just so happened that Foundry Methodist is crazy on social justice (my kind of church) and had a million programs to get involved with. So anyway, we checked out this program and here is how it works. It is a relatively simple concept, but it is well done. People donate books; we shelve them in the stacks so that they are easy to sort through. Prisoners from across the country write in with requests for different kinds of books. We go through the stacks, find a book to fit their request and mail it off to them. My suspicions were correct on the evening. I guessed that dictionaries, thesauruses, and law material would be popular because they are engaged in various letter writing campaigns.

Anyway, you all have good one, ya hear?

Intern by Day…Masked Crusader by Night?

I wish… I just thought I would throw up a sweet title to try and attract your attention. I have been keeping busy since the last time we chatted. The emails that The Washington Center has been promising have started to roll into my mailbox and I am loving it! I was starting to get a little burnt out trying to seek out all of these things on my own. Now with a little bit of added help, I can sustain my nightly activities.

Nightly activities? My, doesn’t that sound illicit?! This is what I mean. You see, as an intern in DC you have the fabulous opportunity to work by day and still participate in all kinds of activities, seminars, etc. in the evening.

I’ll start at the top of the list. I met with yet another University of Iowa Alum who is an attorney that works with a nonprofit organization that fights for journalists’ first amendment rights. She had many interesting things to say about life, law school, getting a job, working and living in DC. I really enjoy the chance to get to talk to alumni from my school that have settled down to work in this area as attorneys. We share a common link (our school) that allows us to begin on a common ground, so that we can easily develop a rapport. Then, we can let the conversation be driven by similar interests (law and public policy).

My program advisor from The Washington Center did the on-sight visit to my internship site and talked with my supervising attorney and me. It was there that I learned that none of the half dozen informational interviews I have conducted fit the requirement for the portfolio that I am working on for The Washington Center (we have to interview someone outside of our own office). It did not surprise me a whole lot, nor did I really care. I was in the process of trying to line up a few interviews anyway with some civil rights attorneys from the Civil Rights Division (the litigation arm of the part of the DOJ that I work in). In fact, it just dawned on me that I could use my most recent meeting with the Iowa Alum. She is an attorney outside of my office. She works with first amendment rights. The distinction here is that she works with civil liberties and I work with civil rights.

Anyway, I also attended an orientation for N Street Village. I encourage you to follow the link because this place is amazing. I am proud of this place. Its founding congregation is a Lutheran church (I come from a Lutheran upbringing). I have always liked the flavor for social ministry in the Lutheran church…I digress. N Street Village is a complex of shelters and programs for homeless women. They have a temporary overnight shelter and a longer term program. What is really impressive is that they have excellent programs for drug addiction and mental illness. They also have low income affordable housing for their graduates so they can get back on their feet. I love this program because it is a case study in what I would like to do with my life. I would love to help set up a program like this some day. It would be awesome!

Now I am trying to get signed up to do a few overnight shifts at their temporary shelter. I am already helping out at another program for homeless women, but I am trying to see as many of these programs as I can so that I can get a better understanding of how they work.

After I went to that orientation, I attended a little Peace Corps session. I found out that I will be decently qualified after I graduate to be come a “business advisor” in a foreign country. I would really like to go to Latin American if possible. Here is why: I am interested in the business development of Latin America. My roommate is actually interning for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as we speak. The reason why I bring this up, is because any work I would be doing down there with Peace Corps would be very closely related to what the IDB does. To make my interest run even deeper, I have made very good acquaintance with a congregant of the Menonite Church I have been attending who also works at the IDB. I met up with him in Chinatown to chat over lunch about the kind of work he does. He is originally from Peru, but he used to do business development work in Bolivia with Latin American development group called Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA does very similar work to what I would be doing in the Peace Corps, as well.

So here is a thought: graduate, do Peace Corps for the 27 months, maybe try to get a job with MEDA and just stay down there and enjoy. I suppose if that doesn’t work out I can always come back and do law school. Remember, after you take the LSAT, it is good for 5 years. In order to meet the Peace Corps requirements for Latin America, I have to take some more Spanish classes (not a big problem). One has to be conversationally proficient at the time of departure, because one will likely have to learn a local dialect or language on the side.

Back to the real world. On Sunday, my rommies and I went to a Nats game with a group of Washington Center interns from Grosvenor Tower (where I live). That was pretty fun. This is actually the first picture I have gotten of all three of my roomies.

There is the park. As we walked in we were handed a flier that said “Rename the National’s Stadium the Exxon Mobile Stadium.” I just thought that was funny, being in Washington and all.

Another great thing is that I was able to attend an “Advanced Westlaw Training Seminar.” If you are applying for the Law and Criminal Justice program and you are interested in becoming a lawyer, then I assume you have at least heard of Westlaw. It’s a crazily comprehensive research tool that every self-respecting office with a lawyer has. It is all the rage, eh? If that was a new one for you, follow these links really quick, just so that you familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade:

Westlaw
Lexis
Findlaw

Since I am interested in the possibility of starting up a nonprofit legal clinic of some kind, I have been looking into this wonderful organization that does training on grant-writing, grant-winning, and nonprofit management. Let me give a little pitch for them. Monthly, they offer free classes on these sorts of things that you can attend of your own volition, with out being an agent of an established nonprofit. They also have library available for grant research, which I assume could come in quite handy. The Foundation Center is the name, and being a valuable resource to nonprofits is its game. I attended a class on financing education through foundation grants. While I didn’t find the information all that useful, because I have done my homework in that field, it gave me access to check out their resources. Thumbs up!

Earlier, I mentioned that I have started to get notices in my mailbox from the Washington Center about events going on around town. This morning I received a notice that there would be a Federal Agency Job Fair this evening. I started scrambling to try and get my goods together. I really was not prepared to attend it. I didn’t have any copies of my resume. I had like three business cards on my person. I had done no homework on the agencies that I wanted to talk to. Tip: when you go to a career fair, do all of the above. Although, I knew I had no clue what I was doing, I went anyway because it was such an invaluable opportunity that I couldn’t stand to miss out on it. I just looked through the listing of agencies and checked the ones I was interested in. Then I just floated around to their tables and picked up their general information. I eavesdropped a little bit on the recruiters to try and get an idea of what questions I should be asking them. Overall, I am glad that I went. However, I just don’t think I am close enough to graduation to be seriously considered by any of the agencies there.

With that, I bid you a good week.

Honda Civic Engagement

Thank you…thank you…I know…that was not a good pun.

This week I started on my civic engagement. The only reason why it has taken me this long to get into it is because I have been very picky with what kind of volunteerism I wanted to do, so I have just now received some bites.

I came out here with an interest in social justice and between the nature of my work at the Office for Civil Rights, the group of friends I have fallen in with at church, and the volunteer opportunities I have found I am beginning to think it might develop into a passion. Maybe? Maybe? I don’t know…

This weekend I stayed overnight at a women’s homeless shelter called Pathways. It was an incredible experience. I can’t say much more because I need to do a better job honoring the confidentially agreements I have been signing. I am actually signed up to work at three of these kinds of shelters, all told, doing the overnight monitoring. The next one I am going to do is a men’s shelter, so it will be an entirely different experience. Basically, all I do as an overnight monitor is diffuse contentious situations and deal with emergencies. So, on a quiet night, what I do is smile then sleep. It is awesome getting to talk to the people you get to work with. They can teach you a lot about life. The night was kind of hectic, but it was really rewarding.

That was Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I attended a Mennonite church that I went to last week on invitation from a co-worker. The pastor invited me over to his house for a post-service fiesta. I got my first chance in a while to dust off my Spanish speaking non-ability…yeah, I was even worse than I thought. I made friends with a fellow who had just turned 18, but had already been through more than I could stand in one lifetime. His life is a remarkable story.

Monday was some of the best Washington Center programming yet. We had the Secretary of Commerce come and speak to us. He was an excellent speaker with excellent things to say. My roommate got up and asked the second killer question in a row. This time, he actually got it answered. Last time it was to a panel of former congressmen. You can guess how directly they answered it. I really enjoyed what the Secretary had to say—so much so that I did not notice the Secret Service agent in the aisles.

Tuesday, I got the opportunity to do client intake at the free immigration clinic in Fairfax County called Just Neighbors. My partner was a former tax attorney. My partner and I worked with one client the entire evening, basically just asked a bunch of questions, making copies of documents, and calming her children. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of the summer; a chance to interact with attorneys, a chance to interact with disadvantaged clients, and a chance to do what I want to do with my life.

Today was just a busy day at work. I have done extra hours the last two days just because we are approaching a deadline. That prison rape policy recommendations report is due to Congress, I suppose.

Maybe I should talk about Independence Day weekend. My roomies and went and saw the parade.

This picture is the entire parade. No. I am just kidding. I just had to take this picture because I thought it was so sweet.

We were just trying to watch the bagpipers when this helicopter flew over us and landed on the White House lawn. Apparently, GW was coming in from swearing in some new citizens at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s old flat). So I guess I can say I saw the President at the White House while I was in town, eh?

I guess while I am on the pictures and talking about the parade. I might as well post this. I have been promising my roomies a ten page exposé, but this will have to do. These are the two the came along to the parade. The Fourth was actually out campaigning for Obama that morning. What makes that even better is that he is not even a U.S. citizen and he has been more politically active than us Americans. The fellow with the Indian’s hat is Gary Richard Thaxton from right around Cleveland, Ohio. He works at Interpol (which I found out is a branch of the Department of Justice). The fellow on the right that the creepy guy in the background is recording is Joseph Ducharme. He is from Massachusetts. He works with the Metropolitan Police Station. Can you tell that I didn’t really watch the parade?

After about halfway through the parade we were hot, bored, and burnt. So we walked around DC while, since there were no crowds (everyone was at the parade). We went and got our pictures taken by the White House.

Yeah. That is me to try to be cool. It does not always work, but I am pretty sure this one worked out. Maybe? Maybe?

In a surreal moment, I was taking a picture of the White House and I realized there was a fellow standing on top of it taking a picture of me through digital binoculars.

Of course, that night we went and saw the fireworks on the Mall. We were right in front of the Washington Monument. Check out this picture. You can see the Lincoln in the background and the Reflecting Pool.

And lastly, here is the one and only artistic thing I will probably get around to doing this summer. I call it TIMElaspes When You are Having Fun in DC.

I have question for you.

What is sweeter than two Independence Days in one week? Two? That is right. July 1st and July 4th. Happy Canada Day! I woke up on the 1st and my roomie from Toronto was wearing a red bow tie to celebrate the occasion. Another roommate and I wanted to get in on the celebration so we donned our red ties and white shirts and talked about syrup and extended medical waiting room visits as we ate breakfast. My roomie regaled us with an inspired rendition of “O Canada.” I tried to follow it up with the only Canadian song I knew (or though I knew). It has the words “…land of the beaver...” That is about all I remember. He knew it, though. Then I tested my knowledge of the Canadian provinces and lost. I named all of them, but I named some of the “territories” as “provinces.” I also forgot the new territory, Nunavut. But in all seriousness, we met up at the Canadian Embassy for lunch. It was crazy jam-packed. We had a great time. What’s more, I saw folks proudly wearing the Canadian colors all day as I ran around town on the Metro. I am really glad I had a chance to celebrate it. It was a blast.

This last week has been a very fun one. Now that I am settled into the groove of things and have burnt myself out as a tourist (at least for now because this weekend is the 4th), I am starting to really dig into what I want to get out of my summer in DC. What is that? Knowledge from other people’s experience and exposure to things I am considering doing with my life.

To start with I went to a free Kaplan event. It was an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) night. There was a little MBA program fair there; they talked about the admissions process, and the GMAT (the test you have to take to get into most MBA programs). Let me quickly give a little plug for Kaplan. I am well acquainted with them because they terrorize my campus back home. Their programs are pretty pricey, but be advised, if you are serious about applying to grad school, everyone else prepares for the test in some way, shape or form. Ultimately it is up to you to decide whether you want to drop the money to take one of their prep classes. Depending on how you are situated, you might only need to pick up a book and study. However, if you are an extremely average test taker like me, you will probably find it worth the money (this goes for GRE, MCAT, GMAT, and LSAT). Essentially, what you are doing is paying to section out time once a week to take the test under testing conditions. Whereas you can only improve your general intelligence some, you can add substantial points by increasing your comfort and familiarity with the material covered. My recommendation is to find the nearest Kaplan test service near you. They have a presence on many campuses nationwide. Get on their information list, because they will email you free promotions. I have actually taken a practice LSAT with them twice already. It is an actual LSAT test; it is just an old retired one. They have promotions like those free practice tests and that MBA night all the time.

Let me give you their website.

During this last week I have just been meeting up with people over lunch just to chat and gain their perspective. There is a great organization in town called the Capital Area Club which takes people that are alumni of The Washington Center and your alma mater. Through the Capital Area Club (the University of Iowa chapter) I was able to get in contact with a fellow who is almost identical to me on paper. He interned through The Washington Center with the Department of Justice. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a major in Finance. Now he works at the Department of Justice, Tax Division and is currently trying to get into law school. It was fun meeting up with him. He was able to open up to me and tell me about his law school search. For someone being so similarly situated, the advice is good for what I will be facing in the next several years after I graduate. I have also been able to have lunch with some interns that are my age that are working in the Department of Justice for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). It is always fun talking to them because they are doing an internship that is relevant to my major (Finance). That way I can kind of get a perspective on my options for Plan B, should my law school dreams fade.

I also had lunch with a Budget Analyst from the OCFO and we got to talking about our religion. He invited me to his church. This kind of church is right up my alley because it emphasizes social justice. I am all about that. The congregation is, perhaps, 2/3 Hispanic (some citizens, some legal immigrants, and some undocumented), so a lot of the service was in Spanish. That is the second week I have found myself in a Spanish church service and I am really liking it. My Spanish is a little rusty, but I am brushing up again.

After the service we went to one of the congregant’s houses for a benefit lunch. Her husband had been picked up by immigration and deported. I sat there among their family friends and congregants witnessing their pain and feeling completely helpless knowing I would never be able to understand. It was probably the most humbling experience of my life. Exposure like this is absolutely invaluable to me because it reminds me of what I stand for and makes sure I am not numb to suffering and disregard for human dignity. I will also say, they fixed traditional Bolivian food and it was amazing! Yucca, lamb tongue, and rice.

This week I also began my informational interview project. At the suggestion of my supervising attorney, I am interviewing each of the civil rights attorneys in my Office to draw on their experience. I am trying to get advice on law school, my professional career, but most importantly, I am using their expertise to help me figure out what shape my passion of social justice can take once I am out of law school. The first attorney I interviewed worked as a social worker in Connecticut and then went into family law for a time. I was fascinated to hear what she had to say concerning the juvenile court systems, etc, because I am very interested in how I could bring my skills as an attorney into programs for juveniles.

While I am speaking about exploring my passions, let me talk to you a little bit about the civic engagement requirement for The Washington Center program. Let me preface this discussion by saying you should read through The Washington Center's website and make sure that you understand the expectations of the program. It is important that you keep yourself informed; that way there are no curveballs. It is all right there on their website laid out nice and concisely. Follow the link if you want, it takes you to the program components page.

The civic engagement aspect of your Washington Center experience may seem overwhelming, at first. However, this is only because it takes a little time to get things figured out. That’s why I want to offer some tips here so that you will be ahead of the game. Please don’t look at this requirement as a burden, just one more thing to do. It is honestly a major facet of a well-rounded experience in DC. This town is all about policy, power, and politics. With that policy side comes such an opportunity to get involved. Literally, you can pick any issue that matters to you and find a way to get plugged into it. The first place to start is to talk to your coworkers about what opportunities are available and see where they refer you. Second, get a hold of your congressman’s office if you are interested in politics and see where they can refer you. Let me give you some really good websites for some generalized volunteer opportunities in the area.

Volunteermatch is an excellent website bursting with opportunities. A lot of organizations use it along with Craigslist.org.

Another opportunity is Greater DC Cares. This is a great organization that brings together all kinds of volunteer opportunities in the area, so that you can pick and chose projects that fit into a tight schedule. Greater DC Cares throws volunteer fairs throughout the summer, fall, and spring that you can attend to find out about more sustained volunteer opportunities.

Now here is my plug for any of you Law and Criminal Justice folks out there that are interested in social justice. Check out this site:

http://socialjustice.georgetown.edu/service/programs/dc.html

It is not a bad idea to have some vague idea of how you want to get involved in before you come out here, because if you can explain your interest to the people you will associate with at work and at events, they will be able to point you in all kinds of great directions. In my case I knew I wanted close contact. I wanted to be able to work with people disadvantaged by society. Now that I have been in town for month this desire has taken to forms. I am signed up help overnight at a homeless shelter for a couple of weekends. Also, I finally was accepted to do client intake at a free legal clinic.

I will write more about the portfolio requirements as my deadlines approach. You have my promise. I will be mindful of any useful tips or tricks that I can pass along to you. For instance, the informational interview project that I am doing right now at work can technically fulfill one of the requirements.

Moving on, I want to discuss work a little bit before signing off. I am really fortunate in my placement because they operate under “flex scheduling.” Essentially, I can arrive any time I want between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. After I arrive, the clock starts ticking until I have worked a full day. I am given real, substantive work (no busy work). It is really interesting stuff, too. What is very hard for me to get used to is that my opinion on that data that I am working with highly valued. I am actually asked to weigh in with my thoughts on certain matters. I guess I am just not used to that level of respect in the workplace.

Lastly, I want to leave you with this picture I took from our 17th story balcony of an incoming front. This thing was nasty. I am from Iowa, I know. I also took some footage of the underbelly of a tornadic shelf (I may have made up that word). There is some noticeable circular motion.