Erinn Gardner: Traveling to Culturally Significant Locations (6 points)

This summer, I had the opportunity to visit Alcatraz Island during my time in San Francisco. I didn’t expect it to impact me the way it did. Walking through the old prison felt heavy, almost as though the prison still carried the stories of everyone who was ever locked inside. What stood out most to me was how the isolated and strict the penitentiary was. Even simple things such as reading, writing, or talking were considered privileges that had to be earned. It made me think about how systems of power use deprivation to keep people confined, not just physically but mentally. 

More recently, I read that Donald Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a functioning prison again. Hearing that made me uneasy. It feels like he is wants to bring back an era that glorified punishment over progress. When I think about how mass incarceration continues to target Black communities today, reopening a place like Alcatraz doesn’t feel like justice, but it feels like regression. I couldn’t help but think about freedom, and how deeply we still fight for it.

-Erinn Gardner