Reflection to the Book Inside Rikers free essay sample

I could not help but notice a disturbing image of the book cover; it was an image of an inmate locked up in his cell; he had one hand holding the bar, while having the other hand out of the cell, with a cigarette in his hand. Then I read the Publisher Weekly’s description of the book in the cover page, which read, â€Å"a penetrating exploration of inmates’ lives in New York’s ‘vast penal colony’†¦ unusually stirring. Based on this image and Publisher Weekly’s description, I thought this book was going to talk about inmates’ involvement in criminal activities inside Rikers Island, i. e. fights between the prison gangs. Nevertheless, once I started reading, I came to realize my presumption was totally wrong. Prior to reading this book, I have been thinking that all criminals are just like any other â€Å"normal† persons in this world: they are smart people capable of making rational choices, and they, like â€Å"normal† people, have an equal opportunity to succeed, but they ended up being incarcerated because they made a â€Å"rational choice† to engage in criminal activities. We will write a custom essay sample on Reflection to the Book Inside Rikers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Nevertheless, this book clearly and evidently proved to me how naive I had been. I did not take into account the factors, such as poor and devastated social environments in which criminals were born and raised, that leaves someone no other choice but to resort to criminal activities. Another thing I learned from this book is the importance of rehabilitation. In this reaction paper, I will discuss each of my reactions in depth. Family and Opportunity This book actually changed my perception about inmates and crimes. I came to realize how social factors (such as being raised under incapable and irresponsible guardians or having lack of opportunity) play a big factor when it comes to crime. Rico’s life, which left me heartbroken, clearly illustrated that to me. I thought it was devastating how he became alcoholic at the age of two due to his mother’s habit of mixing liquor in his baby bottles, supposedly to make him sleep or stop crying. He also started smoking weed by age eight, and his father did not stop him. As a matter of fact, his father’s idea of quality time with his son was â€Å"getting high on the weekends†. Moreover, his mother fled the country when he was thirteen. How can anyone be expected to live a successful, law-abiding life under these circumstances? (Wynn, pg. 15) As I was reading, I thought myself: if anyone, including myself, were raised in the environment in which Rico was raised, then no one probably would live a law-abiding life. Likewise, it left Rico no other choice but to enter the life of the criminals. I believe I had been really naive to think that people like Rico chose to get involved in the criminal industry simply because they were lazy or did not seek legitimate opportunity like every one else did Angel, like Rico, turned to criminal activities because of social factors. He simply lacked the opportunity to live a decent life. There was one thing he said that really moved my heart. He said he hated the fact that he was poor no matter how hard he worked; he could not even buy things that he wanted on TV, when others can buy it without any hesitation. As strain theorists would say, this frustration probably turned him to a conman (Wynn, pg. 8). If criminals like Rico and Angel had parents who sincerely took care of them, or who could actually provide the basic necessities for them, would they have ended up in Rikers Island? Probably not. Thus, I really felt bad for them and the circumstances under which they had to live. The importance of Rehabilitation To be honest, I did not believe in rehabilitation prior to reading this book. Instead, I was a big fan of crime control model; I believed that mass incarceration is the best form of punishment and deterrence. However, as L. Richards said, I came to realize that â€Å"one act of kindness will do more toward reforming a criminal than a thousand acts of cruelty and than all the punishment that you can inflict†. I believe rehabilitation programs such as Fresh Start are really great way to provide inmates with a true â€Å"fresh start†. For many inmates, it sparks a desire within them that led to a succession of accomplishments and I believe Carlos and Lenny are living proof that people can change and that good rehabilitation programs work (Wynn, pg. 150) For Carlos, he not only mastered word processing but also learned Quark, which was sophisticated publishing software. His newly acquired skills led him to create massive database for the newsletter company and designed an award-winning website. He also trained other Fresh Start graduates to resolve their issues. Thus, it is evident that the rehabilitation program turned him from a drug dealer to a decent web-designer (Wynn, pg. 151). Likewise, Lenny received a job in a telemarketing company, which not only gave him the sense of accomplishment, but also made him realize that he can earn money by engaging in legal activities. I also liked how he became an inspiring figure to other inmates enrolled in the Fresh Start program, by telling them about how he has overcome his hardships after he was released from Rikers Island. Thus, these living proofs made me realize how important rehabilitation is. We, as a society, are busy blaming criminals for the crimes they commit, but we do not spend much time trying to help them live a straight, legitimate life (Wynn, pg. 156). Nevertheless, there was one rehabilitation programs that I really oppose: it’s the Key Extended Entry Program (KEEP), which allows addicts to receive methadone throughout their period of incarceration, which averages forty-five days but an be up to a year or even eighteen months. As mentioned in Anthony’s article â€Å"Rikers Highland,† some inmates leave jails with a worse drug habit than they came in with (Wynn, pg. 174). Conclusion Overall, this book changed my perception of inmates and the rehabilitation program. The inmate’s lives (especially the life of Rico) not only saddened me, it also made me feel that, based on their environment in which they were raised, they had no other choice but to become criminals, as if it were their destiny. I just hope more and more inmates take advantage of the rehabilitation program like â€Å"Fresh Start† to live a legitimate life after release.

Corona’s Bank Essay Example

Corona’s Bank Essay Example Corona’s Bank Essay Corona’s Bank Essay Another bank history shows Corona’s 1000000s Chief Justice Renato Corona owns another peso history incorporating 1000000s. a bank functionary testified on Thursday’s hearing. As of 2010. Corona’s Bank of the Philippine Islands history has P12 million. said Leonora Dizon. subdivision director of BPI Ayala Avenue Branch. Senate before ordered Dizon to attest and convey Corona’s bank records from 2005 to 2010 to be presented as grounds for the impeachment’s Article II. which deals with the truthfulness of statements of assets. liabilities and net worth. The bank director said Corona’s BPI history is still active. Balances at yearend were: P149. 000 in 2005 ; P153. 000 in 2006 ; P5 million in 2007 ; P1. 5 million in 2008 ; P678. 000 in 2009 ; and so P12 million in 2010. This is apart from Corona’s two other histories in Philippine Savings Bank with a combined stoping balance of about P20 million. as revealed in the impeachment tribunal on Wednesday. In his 2010 SALN. Corona’s declared hard currency plus was merely P3. 5 million. Lead defence advocate Serafin Cuevas asked the Senate to subpoena Corona’s bank records from BPI. He wanted to demo that Corona’s P12 million was non due to a individual sedimentation but accumulated over several minutess. But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. presiding officer of the impeachment tribunal. told both parties to merely travel to the bank to analyze Corona’s records in order to rush things up. AirAsia Philippines Renting 16 Aircraft MANILA. Philippines – Newly licensed AirAsia Inc. ( Philippines ) will rent 14-16 Airbus 320 planes to serve domestic and international paths within 1. 5 to 4 hours flight from its Clark. Pampanga hub in the following half decennary. The air hose on Wednesday received its commercial air bearer certification ( AOC ) from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines ( CAAP ) in the latter’s Manila office. In March. last twelvemonth. AirAsia Inc. registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) to prosecute chiefly in the concern of air transit in the Philippines and abroad for rider and lading. AirAsia Inc. is a 60-40 joint venture between Filipino investors Antonio O. Cojuangco. Michael L. Romero and Marianne B. Hontiveros with Malaysia’s AirAsia International Ltd. . a wholly-owned subordinate of AirAsia Berhad. The latter won the best low cost air hose award for three back-to-back old ages from Skytrax. the world’s largest air hose and airdrome reappraisal site. In the approaching hebdomads. we will get down our domestic and international operations utilizing two trade name new Airbus A-320s flown in from the Airbus mill in Toulouse. France. AirAsia Inc. CEO Marianne Hontiveros announced. The air hose has to the full complied with the new stiff procedure and demands for the AOC meant to guarantee safety conscientiousness in Philippine Aviation. We are committed to do air travel more merriment. low-cost and accessible to all Filipinos. she added. The air hose besides aims to regenerate touristry and hike rider traffic at its hub in the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport ( DMIA ) in Clark. Angeles. Pampanga.

OptionParser Command-Line Options the Ruby Way

OptionParser Command-Line Options the Ruby Way Ruby comes equipped with a powerful and flexible tool to parse command-line options, OptionParser. Once you learn how to use this, youll never go back to looking through ARGV manually. OptionParser has a number of features that make it quite appealing to Ruby programmers. If youve ever parsed options by hand in Ruby or C, or with the getoptlong C function, youll see how welcome some of these changes are. OptionParser is DRY. You only have to write the command-line switch, its arguments, the code to run when its encountered, and the command-line switch description once in your script. OptionParser will automatically generate help screens for you from this description, as well as infer everything about the argument from its description. For example, it will know the file [FILE] option is optional and takes a single argument. Also, it will know that [-no]-verbose is really two options and will accept both forms.OptionParser will automatically convert options to a specific class. If the option takes an integer, it can convert any string passed on the command-line to an integer. This cuts down on some of the tedium involved in parsing command-line options.Everything is very contained. All of the options are in the same place, and the effect of the option is right along-side the definition for the option. If options have to be added, changed or someone simply wants to see what they do, the re is only one place to look. Once the command-line is parsed, a single Hash or OpenStruct will hold the results. Enough Already, Show Me Some Code So heres a simple example of how to use OptionParser. It doesnt use any of the advanced features, just the basics. There are three options, and one of them takes a parameter. All of the options are mandatory. There are the -v/verbose and -q/quick options, as well as the -l/logfile FILE option. Additionally, the script takes a list of files independent of the options. #!/usr/bin/env ruby # A script that will pretend to resize a number of images require optparse # This hash will hold all of the options # parsed from the command-line by # OptionParser. options {} optparse OptionParser.new do|opts|   Ã‚  # Set a banner, displayed at the top   Ã‚  # of the help screen.   Ã‚  opts.banner Usage: optparse1.rb [options] file1 file2 ...   Ã‚  # Define the options, and what they do   Ã‚  options[:verbose] false   Ã‚  opts.on( -v, verbose, Output more information ) do   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  options[:verbose] true   Ã‚  end   Ã‚  options[:quick] false   Ã‚  opts.on( -q, quick, Perform the task quickly ) do   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  options[:quick] true   Ã‚  end   Ã‚  options[:logfile] nil   Ã‚  opts.on( -l, logfile FILE, Write log to FILE ) do|file|   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  options[:logfile] file   Ã‚  end   Ã‚  # This displays the help screen, all programs are   Ã‚  # assumed to have this option.   Ã‚  opts.on( -h, help, Display this s creen ) do   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  puts opts   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  exit   Ã‚  end end # Parse the command-line. Remember there are two forms # of the parse method. The parse method simply parses # ARGV, while the parse! method parses ARGV and removes # any options found there, as well as any parameters for # the options. Whats left is the list of files to resize. optparse.parse! puts Being verbose if options[:verbose] puts Being quick if options[:quick] puts Logging to file #{options[:logfile]} if options[:logfile] ARGV.each do|f|   Ã‚  puts Resizing image #{f}...   Ã‚  sleep 0.5 end Examining the Code To start off with, the optparse library is required. Remember, this isnt a gem. It comes with Ruby, so theres no need to install a gem or require rubygems before optparse. There are two interesting objects in this script. The first is options, declared at the top-most scope. Its a simple empty hash. When options are defined, they write their default values to this hash. For example, the default behavior is for this script to not be verbose, so options[:verbose] is set to false. When options are encountered on the command-line, theyll change the values in options to reflect their effect. For example, when -v/verbose is encountered, it will assign true to options[:verbose]. The second interesting object is optparse. This is the OptionParser object itself. When you construct this object, you pass it a block. This block is run during construction and will build a list of options in internal data structures, and get ready to parse everything. Its in this block that all the magic happens. You define all the options here. Defining Options Each option follows the same pattern. You first write the default value into the hash. This will happen as soon as the OptionParser is constructed. Next, you call the on method, which defines the option itself. There are several forms of this method, but only one is used here. The other forms allow you to define automatic type conversions and sets of values an option is restricted to. The three arguments used here are the short form, long form, and description of the option. The on method will infer a number of things from the long form. One thing is will infer is the presence of any parameters. If there are any parameters present on the option, it will pass them as parameters to the block. If the option is encountered on the command-line, the block passed to the on method is run. Here, the blocks dont do much, they just set values in the options hash. More could be done, such as checking that a file referred to exists, etc. If there are any errors, exceptions can be thrown from these blocks. Finally, the command-line is parsed. This happens by calling the parse! method on an OptionParser object. There are actually two forms of this method, parse and parse!. As the version with the exclamation point implies, it is destructive. Not only does it parse the command-line, but it will remove any options found from ARGV. This is an important thing, it will leave only the list of files supplied after the options in ARGV.

A Fast Food and Bakery Take-Away counter in Downtown, Mumbai Essay

A Fast Food and Bakery Take-Away counter in Downtown, Mumbai - Essay Example The initial setup of the bakery and fast food counter would be a small one to involve as little investment and risk as possible. The preliminary research has revealed that there are very few bakeries and fast food counters in the populated areas of Mumbai and hence, the competitive edge of the project would be its location inviting a lot of pedestrian traffic on a daily basis. The main customers of the counter would be office going youngsters and students who like mobile food and snacks and have a preference for Western origin food more than their local origins. The initial setup cost of the counter including the construction, rentals, machinery, raw material, etc. is around $ 76,000, which is an estimate calculated from the data of take away counters of similar capacity. An analysis of the location tells us that Mumbai is thickly populated with people belonging to all the backgrounds: Upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, and the lower class. The main ta rget audience of the counter would be people belonging to middle class and the higher classes. Since Mumbai is densely populated with average income people, investing in a bakery that has numerous future prospects seems like an investment that is worthwhile. Another interesting factor is the change in the eating habits of people especially among the younger lot. They prefer fast food and snacks that they can eat while on the go. Hence, a take away counter for bakery items and fast food would definitely be a profitable venture. The Gantt chart of the project shows that it would take the counter approximately more than two months starting from research up until its launch. Project Description The outcome that the project would achieve is the setup of a take-away counter selling bakery and fast food items such as hot breads, rolls, cakes, burgers, sandwiches, pizzas, etc. The location of the counter would be in downtown Mumbai, India so that it gets a lot of foot traffic from the nearb y offices, schools, colleges, etc. The target market of the counter is young and middle-aged people working in offices or students who are constantly moving and need to eat outside their homes. As mentioned earlier, the eating habits of all younger generation are very different from the older lot, they prefer fast food and bakery items and thus, a counter catering to their needs would ensure lots of people coming during lunch and teatime hours. Another possible consumer base of the counter would be people with a sweet tooth and other who like to buy cakes and pastries for celebrations and religious festivals, which are abundant in India. The counter would host products such as pastries, custom made cakes, biscuits, mini muffins, etc. The counter would also place tables and chairs nearby so that consumers who want to sit can have their meals comfortably. The counter would have self-service. The packaging would be attractive and artistically done for takeaways and gifts. A study of th e market has provided that food business, specifically bakeries, fast food, and other similar outlets suffer less even in the time of recession. Another advantage with such counters is that they are easy to setup and not a lot of technical expertise is necessary. The overall business model of such ventures is pretty straight forward with a direct revenue model that does not have a lot of risk involved. The success of such a counter depends on the following factors: market need, taste and product quality. Mumbai is a metropolitan city with the people residing here belonging to all backgrounds and coming from all parts of India bringing in their own cultural heritage and taste. Here, the

John Dewey Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

John Dewey - Term Paper Example In the said era, the government enacted first educational law by Massachusetts General Court requiring the parents that their children must able to understand the religion and laws by reading and writing. Following the premier rule, many other consequent policies were endorsed by general court with cooperation and support of federal government. After the permissive era, the next era has been nominated as Encouraging Era (1826-1851). During this era, the educational sector in United States was enough furnished and flourished through educational friendly policies and law enforcement. The education was at its growing phases during these years. It is because people in the government had begun realizing that education is the key that may lead the nation above skies. However people were not forced to must send their children to public schools but the provision of understanding the laws and religion was still persisted. Education was made compulsory in all states of United States in 1855. F rom 1855 to 1980, parents were compelled by the government to send their children to schools. In case of violation of the order, they were charged penalties. In encouraging era, people were motivated by making them aware with the prime significance of education in the development of any nation. During that era, the volunteers and persuaded people blissfully sent their charges to educational institutions while some of those were still overlooking. To compensate the ignorance committed by citizens, government made it compulsory for every child (Kauchak and Eggen, 08, 12, 21). After 1980 to date, the educational era is committed as freedom and choice of school era. People were enough matured and full blown that they were not needed to force any more. The policy approach by historical timeline in perspective of United States of America suggests that government adopted the most suitable strategy for its nation in order to enforce a powerful and well established educational system. It rem ained pretty successful such that literacy rate in United States is reported as 99% (males as well as females) (U.S. Dept. of Education). Philosophical Perspectives of American Education In generalized philosophy, it is comprised of four broader categories which are further applied to other applications. Such as here we are required to apply philosophical concepts over US educational system. The four branches are Epistemology, Metaphysics, Axiology and logic. Every one of these is relative to describe the real phenomenon behind the scene. The purposes of education overlap in different scenarios. Such as if we critically examine the historical perspective of purpose of education, it can be clearly elucidated that educational basis has a strong philosophy behind it. In the same connotation, being most precise, the logic behind education is development and awareness. The twofold rationale behind introducing the education explains the purposes with respect to society and purpose with re spect to culture. The goals of a person’s life may be better achieved with the help of education. It polishes the human mind by putting immunity for critical thinking and decision making in it (King). Not only it gives bookish knowledge only but also it offers a strong sense of socialization, judgment and finding of reality. It has a defined way for every individual through a particular age in order to get an equivalent chance for development and augmentation.

Inform Speech Outline Essay Example for Free

Inform Speech Outline Essay General purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the benefits of mangosteen Central Idea: Mangosteen is a tropical evergreen tree that bears fragrant fruit with a sweet, creamy, citrus-like flavor that has many benefits in our life such as for medical purpose, for health purpose and also for beauty purpose. Introduction: See more: 5 paragraph essay format I. Mangosteen is one of the most popular tropical fruits, which is mainly in humid, hot climates. II. Mangosteen is a small evergreen tree, found in the Pacific Islands, Africa and Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. III. Mangosteen is recognized by other names such as Garcinia Mangostana L, Manggis, Mangosteen or Mangis. IV. Today I would like to inform you about the benefits of mangosteen in our life such as for medical purpose, for health purpose, and also for beauty purpose. (Transition: Now, I have finished with the introduction of mangosteen. Let’s start with the first benefit of mangosteen.) I. The first benefits of mangosteen is for medical purpose. A. Mangosteen fruits are fighting cancer and heart disease. 1. According to the American cancer society, in lab studies mangosteen has slowed down the growth of certain cancer cells. 2. Mangosteen is a strong source of antioxidants and anti-accidents have shown to protect against cancer and heart disease. 3. Lab tests have shown that mangosteen fruit can kill same bacteria and fungi. B. Mangosteen can use for nutritions food. 1. This fruit is very low in calories and contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. 2. Mangosteen also has vitamin c for helps the body develop resistance against flu. C. Mangosteen also can use for medicinal value. 1. The leaf of mangosteen can use for infusion to cure wounds. 2. The rind of mangosteen also can used cure for diarrhea and dysentery, intestinal catarrh and skin infections. (Transition: okay, l has finished about the first benefits of mangosteen. Let’s go to the second benefit of mangosteen.) II. The second benefit of mangosteen is for health purpose. D. It is wise to drink mangosteen juice to get its health benefits. 1. Our body can adsorb mangosteen in a juice from quicker rather than consuming fresh or dried. E. Drinking mangosteen juice regularly also important for our life. 1. Mangosteen juice is made by pulping the whole fruit, which strains it and then pasteurizes the juice because most of the health benefit are available in its hull or rind. 2. In fact, preliminary research has indicated that mangosteen juice can help some ailments, such as fatigue, depression, pain, anxiety and other problem. (Transition: Now I have finished about the second benefits of mangosteen. Let’s go to the last benefit of mangosteen.) III. The last benefit of mangosteen is for beauty purpose. F. The function of an antioxidant in mangosteen. 1. Antioxidants is to fight against the free radicals that cause cellular damage and that have been implicated in the development of heart disease and cancer. G. Antioxidants can use to repair damage to our own cells. 3. Antioxidants are one of the most important substances in foods for our lives 4. Antioxidants are nature’s anti-aging medicine that can help prevent cancer, heart disease and countless other illnesses. (Transition: Okey, I have finished about of the all benefits of mangosteen. Let’s go to the conclusion for today.) Conclusion I. As we have seen, mangosteen has many benefits for the our live. II. Therefore, there have many benefits and function that can use for protecting many diseases in our live. III. Lastly, I hope of the all audiences can understand now what the benefit of mangosteen and like to eat mangosteen in our live. References Mangostana, G. (2006). Practical Manual No. 9: Mangosteen. Southampton: Southampton Centre for Underutillised Crops. Tannis, A. (2009). Feed Tour Skin Starve Your Wrinkles: Eat Your Way to Firmer, More Beautiful Skin with the 100 Best Anti-Aging Foods. Beverly: Quayside Publishing Group. Lucas, S. E. (2009). The Art of Public Speaking: Tenth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Renaissance Period and the Start of Humanism :: European Europe History

The Renaissance Period and the Start of Humanism The Renaissance was an incredibly important turning point in Western Intellectual and Cultural Tradition. All of these changes centered around the idea of Humanism -- in which, people became less "God Centered" and more "Human-centered". I have narrowed down these changes, and will discuss in detail, these changes in three major categories: Political, Education, and the Humanism of Arts. The major pollical changes of the Renaissance were from the old Feudal System of the Middle Ages into a more flexible and liberal class system. This was most noticeable in Italy (particularly in Florence), where the divisions consisted of the old rich, the new rich nobles, the middle class, and the lower middle class(The poor didn't count). This created great conflict between these social divisions. The new rich consisted of successful merchants, capitalists, and bankers innovators of new systems of making money. The Humanism philosophy was also a very popular with the people and many political leaders rose to high positions with support of these ideals. Three humanists even became chancellors of Florence -- they used their rhetorical skills to strongly rally the people of Florence against their enemies. The great changes in Education of the Renaissance were inspired at first, by the desire of Humanists to be wise and to speak eloquently. The idea of useful education for the people, and very "well rounded" schooling in many different fields of learning were the new defined goals of Renaissance education. People all over (Especially in Florence) revived the Ancient Greek studies of Plato, Aristotle, and many others. People began seriously questioning what these people said and re-developed the "Scientific Theory" in which you didn't just accept whatever was said to you, but you tested the truth of it. In the area of Humanism and the Arts, Renaissance Artists no longer were subordinate to the interests and the values of the Clergy, and were able to create anything of their "artistic will". Both men and women were now able to appreciated arts beyond just religious themes. Artists could also now take advantage of new techniques, such as oil painting and linear perspective to enhance the quality of their works. All of the great artists of the time used became who they were solely because of this new artistic freedom that the Renaissance brought them. These artists also created works that were more complex than before.