Ginny Oshiro (she/her) is a formerly incarcerated scholar working toward her doctoral degree at UC Irvine in the Criminology, Law & Society program in the School of Social Ecology. She is a current National Health Policy Research Scholar and a Women's Policy Institute Alum.
As a formerly incarcerated scholar, Ginny has learned that her lived experience is connected to larger communities and societal structures. The realization that she and her community were being impacted by the criminalization of addiction, the deinstitutionalization and criminalization of mental illness, the making of mass incarceration, and the construction of a refractory criminal justice system that was never made to support already disenfranchised populations, radically altered her personal and academic trajectory. This injustice has fueled Ginny’s passion for critical examination of criminal justice policies and practices that are both product and cause of the oppression of vulnerable communities.
Because research has often been the catalyst for meaningful reforms in the criminal justice system, she wishes to create an opportunity for change through such policies and practices.
Ginny’s research interests involve evaluating the role of healing and transformative programs in US prisons. The United States has a complicated history regarding opportunities for rehabilitation in carceral facilitites. When attempting to understand the role of rehabilition in prisons across the US, Ginny often comes up against the question, "What is the purpose of prison?"
Ginny is specifically interested in California careceral systems given the unique nature of size, scope, and policies governing and impacting the system. California has been a progressive leader in many ways. However, its justice policies have yet to reflect "California values." California currently has 32 prisons in operation and has an annual operating budget exceeding $13+billion.
We know that those who are at risk of becoming incarcerated are often impacted by trauma. Additionally, we must keep in mind the significance of environmental stressors unique to prison conditions, such as isolation, punitive sanctions, and severely restricted and deplorable living conditions. Therefore, it is not surprising that the third leading cause of death in U.S. prisons is suicide, exceeded only by natural deaths and deaths from AIDS. California prisons have the sad distinction of having the highest suicide rates in the country. Community-based in-prison program providers play a critical role in the lives of incarcerated people by providing healing and transformative programs, a bridge to the community through community leaders, and a safe and secure space within the confines of incarceration. Beyond the healing that happens in programs, programs and program providers provide connection and hope in an otherwise seemingly hopeless landscape.