A New Narrative
A New Narrative is SCOOP’s publication for health students to submit their reflections and growing analysis. Through these essays, we learn to see the many intersections between the criminal legal system and health in our hospitals, communities, cities, and lives. Reducing the carceral harm requires significant ideological work, the deconstructing of old and writing of New Narratives. Individualist narratives of harm, devoid of context, do not serve communities and patients well. What can we offer instead?
At SCOOP, we write New Narratives of health, safety, justice, healing, and repair. We write New Narratives on the role health workers must take in social change beyond social service provision.
We hope that you will join us in contributing New Narratives of your own. How might we build power, together, towards a new politics of care?
How To Submit
This publication is for any health student (MD, DO, PA, NP, MPH, etc.). Please submit any work not published elsewhere by contacting us and noting that it is a submission for A New Narrative.
What are you seeing in clinic and community that demands change? What policies and people are propping up a narrow definition of public safety? What are the health implications of your local carceral institutions? How has SCOOP’s curriculum changed your analysis around harm? What education, organizing, and action are you taking?
What New Narrative will you be a part of writing?
Not all submissions can be published. All that are published will be lightly edited in collaboration with you.
Essays usually range from 700 - 1,200 words. Please see previously published essays for examples of the variety of content we publish.
It Takes a Village – The Origins of Juvenile Incarceration
By Zizi Ohamadike
“Today, children who experience incarceration in the United States face deplorable living conditions, marked by violence, neglect, abuse, and exploitation…As healthcare providers, it is imperative that we critically analyze the origins and systemic drivers of juvenile incarceration in the United States. By doing so, we can develop and advocate for community-based solutions that protect the health and well-being of pediatric patients. By examining pivotal developments in the establishment of the modern juvenile carceral system, we see that despite claims of safeguarding children, it is primarily harmful.”