Several African-American prisoners shared personal accounts of the xenophobia and bigotry they experienced as children in the segregated south and how they were victims of racially-fuelled violence. The film shines a light on the relationship between the ongoing racial discrimination and trauma that prisoners at the San Quentin jail have faced in their lifetime. Researches say that the transgenerational effects are not only psychological but familial, cultural, social, neurobiological, and possibly even genetic. Offsprings often end up grappling with their parents' post-traumatic state. It leaves behind a huge weight on the community that can be passed down from ancestor to ancestor and father to son. Shah also acknowledges that historical events that have devastated whole communities such as the genocide of native people, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, the Rwandan genocide the legacies of slavery, and more are another contributing factor to intergenerational trauma. This type of trauma is often associated with racial and ethnic population groups in the United States who have suffered major intergenerational losses and assaults on their culture and well-being.” Vietnam War (Raw Love Productions) The term 'intergenerational trauma' was first used by Maria Yellow Horse Brave-Heart Jordan in the 1980s: “The collective and compounding emotional and psychological injury over the lifespan that is multigenerational and resulting from a history of genocide.” It was further elucidated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as, “Unresolved grief and anger often accompany this trauma and contribute to physical and behavioral health disorders. Maltreated children are at risk of developing long-lasting trauma symptoms, and if left unchecked can affect their own children's lives and so forth. While engaged in the weekly VOEG sessions, which is an attempt to heal their trauma by confrontation and a psychological cleanse, San Quentin prisoners divulged how the maternal and paternal trauma that they faced as children carried on well into their adulthood and manifested itself in the form of violence that was punishable by law. Intergenerational trauma is focused on generations of families who have undergone and are still enduring experiences of historical and chronic trauma that has been transmitted generations, through acts of abuse and violence. Sonya Shah, the founder, and director of The Ahimsa Collective who also hosts the 'Victim Offender Education Group' (VOEG) featured in the film, says that in most cases, prisoners usually bear a pre-existing trauma stemming from intergenerational or historical roots. It not only affects the person that falls victim to the violence, but also the perpetrator and the community as a whole. So when they are reintegrated into society, the trauma multiplies becomes a catalyst for the recurring cycle of violence and trauma. Prisoners experience trauma while in incarceration, and in most situations, it is left untreated. It explores the effects of imprisonment, as well as the mental health and trauma of those incarcerated on counts of murder. 'The Prison Within', an unscripted film by Katherin Hervey, is a documentation of the lives of prisoners at the San Quentin State Prison. The one significant detail about prisoners that is often ignored is the trauma they face, not only while incarcerated but also prior to their confinement. African-Americans are five times more likely to be incarcerated than Whites and their sentences are also almost always harsher than their racial counterparts, as per a research article by Journal of Traumatic Stress Disorders & Treatment. Minority populations, such as people of color or low socio-economic groups, share a rather controversial relationship with the criminal justice system from interaction with the law to imprisonment. The US legal system has major disparities when it comes to criminal justice.
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