A Bright Update on a Rainy Day in Oxford

Despite a week of beautiful sunny days and exciting happenings, I am writing this blog post on a dreary Sunday afternoon from a Costa Coffee (English Starbucks) down the road from my accommodation – a friendly reminder to appreciate the sun when it decides to come out and play! Spring is definitely coming and with the sun setting about 2-3 minutes later each day, I’m finding myself more and more inspired to make the most of each day I have here. With five more weeks of term, here’s the latest on my end.

First, I FINALLY got up in the air this weekend with the Oxford University Gliding Club. Despite having five sessions canceled throughout the winter due to weather, I stuck with it and yesterday I got five glider flights in and one single-engine flight, totaling more than 60 minutes of airtime. I have included some pictures in this post to give you an idea of what gliding looks like, but the photos really don’t do the experience justice. At Oxford, the gliders are shot into the air using a motorized winch that gets you into the air in under two seconds. The acceleration is wild and within 30 seconds you find yourself more than 1500 feet in the air. Without an engine, you have to be constantly mindful of your location relative to the airfield. They make you wear a parachute which is slightly concerning, but when you are in the air, things are truly so peaceful.

There are quite a few reasons gliding appeals to me so much. Financially, gliding is very cheap, at about seven pounds a flight. The aircraft are relatively simple and compared to powered flight, you don’t burn any fuel (which is also great for the environment). Gliding is undoubtably adrenaline inducing which serves as a break from all the reading and studying, and flying can also be meditative. As you concentrate on controlling the glider, navigating wind gusts, and avoiding other aircraft around you, everything you worry about in the “real world” falls away. Perhaps I’m just fixated on getting back on the ground safely but flying offers me an escape from any worries and fears and anxiety. It puts things back in perspective and clears my mind, allowing me an opportunity to reset once I’m back on the ground. There’s nothing quite like it. Now that I’ve completed the intro day, I can go any Saturday or Sunday I want… and by the end of this year I may even get my solo license!

But now, back to real life.

Academically, the term is going great. My favorite class this term in definitely “Restorative Justice,” a practice and theory with a plagued definition, but generally refers to the notion of bringing offenders and victims face-to-face, usually with the help of a mediator, to confront a conflict or transgression. The class is taught by a restorative justice (RJ) expert who has done research all over the world on practical efforts to use restorative justice. One of the most interesting aspects of RJ is that the practice doesn’t necessarily replace traditional criminal justice, but rather serves the separate function of repairing harm and giving victims the chance to confront the offender in person, humanizing justice. Research has shown that victims are much more satisfied with RJ than traditional criminal justice (e.g. police and courts), and often recommend RJ to other victims of crime as well. I have come to believe that RJ could play a fundamental role in criminal justice reform in the United States.

I have begun thinking about my thesis project as well, which will be the focus of my third and final term here at Oxford. One promising lead I have been exploring focuses on the relationship between criminology as an intellectual endeavor and criminology as a practical vocational course of study. Through my readings, I have learned that UC Berkeley was home to the United States’ first “Policing School” which sought to professionalize policing. However, during the 1960s as radical criminology gained traction (characterized by intense critiques of policing, recognizing failures of the prison system, and drives for progressive reform), the UC Berkeley faculty and policing forces began to break from each other, and the school fell apart. The Policing School was disbanded, and criminology moved into the law school where the field was used to train scholars, criminal law experts, and activists on how to think about the criminal justice system from a critical perspective, rather than an administrative perspective. Now, the sort of criminal justice useful for rank and file administrators of justice (i.e police officers, prison guards, parole officers, etc.) has been relegated to community colleges and state schools rather than elite universities. I’m interested in exploring this shift and questioning whether or not efforts to professionalize policing once again using criminology could improve the way officers “protect and serve” their communities.

Admittedly, my thoughts are jumbled and vague, but slowly ideas are coming together. Stay tuned!

On the Rotary front, I attended the District Conference in Abingdon last night where I delivered a speech to more than 150 Rotary members here and received an amazing response. People were fascinated with the work I’m doing, and many guests remarked that they have never really given the British criminal justice system serious thought, despite the similar issues faced by the UK system. Multiple people offered to connect me with organizations doing important work regarding criminal justice and asked for recommendations on books or movies to watch to learn more.

Lastly, I am working on an essay for fun about what movies in 2020 are teaching Americans about crime and punishment. I often think about the influence media (i.e. TV shows, movies, music, etc.) has on people’s understanding and views of the criminal justice system. Although media can harm the criminal justice reform movement by stoking fear about the prevalence of crime or making the case for severe punitive responses to crime, I also believe that media has the power to transform America’s understanding of crime and punishment. More to come on this soon!

That’s all for now, but excited to share the rest of the year with you and as always, thanks for reading (:

Izak