A New Narrative
A New Narrative is SCOOP’s publication for health students to submit their reflections, experiences, and growing analysis as they continue to explore the many intersections between the criminal legal system and health. One of the largest barriers to reducing the harms of carceral systems is ideological in nature, with individualist narratives of harm that devoid of context and the solutions on offer being surveillance, policing, and prisons.
Part of our work at SCOOP is to contribute to New Narratives: Of health, safety, justice, healing, and repair. New Narratives of the role of healthcare and public health workers in social change beyond social service provision. Interrogating narratives of policy and ultimately, power.
How can a New Narrative of what it means to be a health worker contribute to building a politics of care?
How to Submit
This publication is for any health student (MD, DO, PA, MPH, etc.). Please feel free to submit work not published elsewhere by contacting us and noting that it is a submission for The Inside SCOOP.
what are you seeing in your hospital and clinic? what lessons from the scoop curriculum and organizing principals have changed your analysis around harm? how is a new analysis driving your actions locally in your healthcare, academic, and community setting?
what are the health implications of local carceral policy where you are? what narrative do you see in need of change?
Unfortunately, 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.
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.”