Annotated Bibliography/ Reflection

Rahmah Hussein

English 21003, Section M

Professor Matyakubova

26 October 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Behind Bars

Thesis: Criminal behavior can lessen with beneficial educational and therapy programs; thus, enhancing the U.S. Criminal Justice System.

Maher, Jane. “Raw Material.” The Hudson Review. 2011, pp. 1-14.

            Jane Maher is professor that teaches at a women’s prison known as Bedford Hills. Maher learns of the many of the psychological issues facing the women there and the coping mechanisms they use to deal with these issues. Although the inmates respect Maher and hold her to a certain esteem, she still witnesses fights and incidents of the kind that cause her to question her will to stay there any longer.

            This source is very relevant to my paper. It addresses one of the main points which is education and rehab programs for convicts. The narrative is told from the eyes of Professor Maher making it emotionally fueled and therefore, subjective. It further reinforced my position which argues that criminal behavior lessens when the prisoner receives educational and therapy programs.

Thesis: Criminal behavior can lessen with beneficial educational and therapy programs; thus, enhancing the U.S. Criminal Justice System.

Hager, Eli. “From Prison to Ph.D.: The Redemption and Rejection of Michelle Jones.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 13 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/harvard-nyu-prison-michelle-jones.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus.

                        In 1992, Michelle Jones’ son died in mysterious circumstances and no body was found. Two years later she was tried, convicted of the murder of her child, and sentenced to twenty in prison. Jones received educational therapy and wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in the field. However, upon her release no college institution wants to accept her because she is an ex-convict. She finally gets accepted to New York University where she is faced with yet more obstacles such as high expectations.

                        This source support the main premise of my paper- education is the best therapy and rehab for people who have troublesome lives. This source is very objective in its approach to information.  This source particularly helped in understanding the research topic because it gave a third hand account on why education is the last hope ex-convicts have of leading normal lives. This source ties in with the previous source in that it uses a more objective approach to reach the same conclusion.  

                       

Rahmah Hussein

English 21003, Section M

Professor Matyakubova

26 October 2017

Annotated Bibliography Reflection

An annotated bibliography is a summary of a few sources, or all of them, that are going to be used for a specific assignment, in this case, a research paper. The annotated bibliography was a bit different this time than it was for my FIQWS class. My professor just told me to summarize under the citation but this one has a summary along with how the source is being used and if it relates to the thesis. This technique was helpful because I knew what details were a best fit to support my thesis.

Also, I revised the summarized sources that I added even though they were two sources, they were very important. The summaries were important because I knew what the overall source was about and was able to analyze them in two paragraphs each.