My project was to restructure The Remedy Project’s case management system, which included optimizing communication pathways, revising document organization (physical and digital), and initiating new procedures. This project was necessary because the organization had just hired two new administrative remedy coordinators and needed to have optimized systems. The Remedy Project’s mission is to fight for the humanity of incarcerated people through the administrative remedy process, which is a grievance system that incarcerated people can use to fix a variety of mistreatments they face in prison. The Remedy Project writes administrative remedies for incarcerated people using the expertise of formerly incarcerated administrative remedy coordinators who know the process inside and out. Because The Remedy Project relies on both administrative coordinators and volunteer college students, it was incredibly important to restructure the case management system in a way that was understandable for both parties despite vast gaps in technological expertise between them.

I used the skills I am learning in my political science and human rights joint major, as well as my philosophy minor, throughout my internship. I used behavior analysis skills gained from my political science studies, such as knowledge of the dynamics of heuristics, to understand the best way to optimize communication between technologically disparate groups. My philosophy classes played a key role in shaping how I approached writing administrative remedies — another duty of my internship. My Philosophy, Justice, and Social Activism class taught me the importance of human appeals, as well as different ways to approach social causes. My Introduction to Logic class taught me how to frame an argument with perfect and undeniable clarity through conditional reasoning. This is important because administrative remedies are frequently thrown away or wrongfully dismissed by prison staff, so records need to show that the remedy itself had no technical faults that could justify this.

While I was handed the task of revising our case management system, my project wasn’t that simple because of the challenge of maneuvering through the various desires of different team leaders and directors. Each had varying levels of experience and attention to detail, but all had strong opinions about how the case management system should function. We were all aligned towards the common goal of an efficient system but had different conceptions of what that would look like. Gradually, I learned that in addition to considering the opinions and needs of each leader, I should do additional research and create model pathways for different system functions. This allowed me to move towards solutions based on informed practicality rather than simply choosing between contrasting pieces of advice I was given. Perhaps this would have been less challenging had I been a team leader, but I believe that learning how to work under various leaders was a valuable experience for me, and something that will likely be applicable to future positions.

Working under a team of formerly incarcerated people on a project that not only helped incarcerated people, but required creativity, communication, and innovation was gratifying. I’ve always known that I want to work for the good of the public, but this summer cemented my desire to better the lives of detained people. Injustice is deeply ingrained within our carceral system, but even seemingly small legislative decisions can have a large impact on the lives of incarcerated people; the administrative remedies were one such decision. The administrative remedy process is complex, and I feel that this internship has given me a great advantage in terms of my understanding of the prison system. Through talking with formerly incarcerated staff, I have learned much more about the American carceral system than is accessible online. Coming out of this internship, I feel emboldened to pursue additional opportunities to further expand my knowledge of the federal prison system and change incarcerated people’s lives for the better.