I was born in Queens in the early 2000s. Although it is not considered the worst borough, it takes a particular type of person to live in New York. When I was younger, everything on my block seemed peachy. I was not sure if it was because children tend to see the world through rose-colored glasses, or maybe at that time, it was. But looking at what my community is like today is heartbreaking. Like so many other communities, my community has been broken up by drugs, lack of not only financial support but mental health awareness, and the lack of support for rehabilitation back into society. The U.S prison system has so many flaws. First of all, the prison system is privately funded. An institution created for the rehabilitation of criminals should not be privately funded as it is to those financing the system's best interest to have more in the system. Secondly, the logic behind deciding sentences is defective. Class E felonies such as third-degree rape, female genital mutilation, and aggravated sexual abuse have a maximum of four years in prison and an average of at least two years. While destroying a ballot or any device used for voting has a maximum imprisonment of five years. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an enlightenment thinker, came up with the social contract, a fundamental concept of the Constitution. The social contract states that people give up certain liberties and freedoms for government protection, as is the government's purpose. Written in the Constitution, it says that if the government does not satisfy the needs of the people, the people have a right to create a new government. Even the first three words of the fundamental document, "We, the people," illustrate the powers of the people of the United States. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is one of the most significant amendments to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment singlehandedly provides citizenship to all born within the United States and naturalized, provides Equal Protection under the law, and establishes privileges and immunities that cannot be abridged by any state or even the federal government. However, even though the Constitution is one of the most well-thought-out plans, it has some flaws. And unlike a mistake on a test paper or forgetting to turn off a light, these flaws have a detrimental impact on people's lives and liberties. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment gives states the power to ban those participating in a crime from voting. States like Iowa, Kentucky, and others have barred those convicted of a felony from voting. The purpose of voting is to allow citizens to vote for those in office who they feel will best represent their interests the best. The United States has one of the highest incarcerations, holding almost 25% of the world's incarcerated. People who have been released from prison have already served their time; when released, they have to overcome so many struggles like finding a job and figuring out how to assimilate into society; why should their political freedoms be further abridged? The United States prison system does few things to rehabilitate prisoners into assimilating back into society. I have dedicated more than 300+ hours in my community and other communities on the East and West Coast. I have encouraged change through soup kitchens, clothing and food drives, and organizations that provide clothes to refugees, ex-convicts, those battling addictions, the homeless, and victims of domestic violence and put them in connection with social workers. It is not enough to work in your own community but to encourage change nationally and even globally by helping everyone in need. I participated in mock trials held at St. John's University, in Model UN and Trial of the Century, completed an internship as a Team Leader for a political campaign, and even took classes that pertain to the legal system like AP Government and Politics and AP U.S History. I want to make the legal system more efficient on a local level and a national level. Ex-convicts need to recover physically and mentally, and emotionally because few people commit crimes because they want to. There are underlying factors like mental health and societal factors at play. Law is important because it is supposed to protect all people of a country, not deny a targeted group. The Supreme Court decision of Tinker V. Des Moines in the late '60s established that "neither teachers nor students shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," so why should prisoners shed their constitutional rights at the prison gates?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" This question pervaded every small gathering, long car ride, and private conversation I have ever had since the sixth grade. It wiggled into my ears and wormed itself into my brain, whispering at the failures and mistakes I made, laying them out like a slideshow. It almost seemed the more I searched, the more lost I became. That was until the answer was made abundantly clear. When I was seven years old, I found out my mother had cancer. My mother had hastily rushed me downstairs to talk privately with my grandmother that night. I peeped around the corner to hear the words, "Mom, I don't know how to tell you this, but I have pancreatic cancer." At the time, I did not understand the gravity of the situation and just walked away thinking she had come down with nothing more than the flu. She would get better; I was sure of it. That very same year, my mother died. I did not even get to say goodbye. On our last visit to the hospital, my family and I, about 8 of us, packed into a car to see my mother in the hospital, our last visit. Before we could even make headway on our pilgrimage, the car lost control. A few days earlier, my uncle had given the car to my father, a certified mechanic, to give a tune-up for the journey. Nothing was wrong with it, but we needed assurance that we could make it to the hospital. My father had cut the brake lines in the car because he knew everyone that stopped him from owning our house, and our few funds would be there. By the age of 8, I had begun living with my father. Whether it be the fact that I was forced to eat only an apple a day or he had tried to poison me, and I inexplicably grew sicker and sicker, and no one knew why, the only release I had for years was in the confines of my imagination and dreams, and even that was taken from me when he would put shreds of fiberglass into my sheets. But the wounds that would have the most impact were the wounds others could not see, the ones left on my virtue. By the age of 12, I was granted custody to my grandmother, a retired waitress an immigrant from Jamaica. Things became significantly better in my life, I had a sense of stability, a support system, and later on, I was finally able to focus on my relationship with food. I was on the most promising path I had ever thought of for myself. I found comfort and curiosity in art and the conviction of the legal system. Art because there was no right or wrong answer and the legal system for various reasons. I wanted to understand why it took me so long to get home. I felt responsibility and obligation to not only the attorney and others who were not as fortunate as I was. Even if it is just one person, I want to create opportunities for others that I may not have had and defend others from injustices, personal agendas, and tedious procedural bureaucracies that do far more harm than good. Because at some point or another, everyone has to face their actions, and I want to be able to hold my head up high at the pearly gates and say, "Look, mom, your baby girl has done it. She has made you proud".

I was born in Queens in the early 2000s. Although it is not considered the worst borough, it takes a particular type of person to live in New York. When I was younger, everything on my block seemed peachy. I was not sure if it was because children tend to see the world through rose-colored glasses, or maybe at that time, it was. But looking at what my community is like today is heartbreaking. Like so many other communities, my community has been broken up by drugs, lack of not only financial support but mental health awareness, and the lack of support for rehabilitation back into society. A change I would like to see in my community and in my country and world is understanding, support, and recuperation for those in need. The U.S prison system has so many flaws. First of all, the prison system is privately funded. An institution created for the rehabilitation of criminals should not be privately funded as it is to those financing the system's best interest to have more in the system. Secondly, the logic behind deciding sentences is defective. Class E felonies such as third-degree rape, female genital mutilation, and aggravated sexual abuse have a maximum of four years in prison and an average of at least two years. While destroying a ballot or any device used for voting has a maximum imprisonment of five years. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an enlightenment thinker, came up with the social contract, a fundamental concept of the Constitution. The social contract states that people give up certain liberties and freedoms for government protection, as is the government's purpose. Written in the Constitution, it says that if the government does not satisfy the needs of the people, the people have a right to create a new government. Even the first three words of the fundamental document, "We, the people," illustrate the powers of the people of the United States. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is one of the most significant amendments to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment singlehandedly provides citizenship to all born within the United States and naturalized, provides Equal Protection under the law, and establishes privileges and immunities that cannot be abridged by any state or even the federal government. However, even though the Constitution is one of the most well-thought-out plans, it has some flaws. And unlike a mistake on a test paper or forgetting to turn off a light, these flaws have a detrimental impact on people's lives and liberties. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment gives states the power to ban those participating in a crime from voting. States like Iowa, Kentucky, and others have barred those convicted of a felony from voting. The purpose of voting is to allow citizens to vote for those in office who they feel will best represent their interests the best. The United States has one of the highest incarcerations, holding almost 25% of the world's incarcerated. People who have been released from prison have already served their time; when released, they have to overcome so many struggles like finding a job and figuring out how to assimilate into society; why should their political freedoms be further abridged? The United States prison system does few things to rehabilitate prisoners into assimilating back into society. I have dedicated more than 300+ hours in my community and other communities on the East and West Coast. I have encouraged change through soup kitchens, clothing and food drives, and organizations that provide clothes to refugees, ex-convicts, those battling addictions, the homeless, and victims of domestic violence and put them in connection with social workers. It is not enough to work in your own community but to encourage change nationally and even globally by helping everyone in need. Ex-convicts need to recover physically and mentally, and emotionally because few people commit crimes because they want to. There are underlying factors like mental health and societal factors at play. The Supreme Court decision of Tinker V. Des Moines in the late '60s established that "neither teachers nor students shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," so why should prisoners shed their constitutional rights at the prison gates?