Reflection:

To begin with, Mrs.Babel stated herself that whilst she is a practicing lawyer in Geneva, Switzerland, she does not hold exact authority over the information regarding my investigation but still wished to aid me with my research and helped me understand the legal system in Geneva and many of the underlying issues that can create further problems when it comes to the integration of ex-prisoners. Occasionally throughout the interview there were minor language barriers but I felt as though the experience was very beneficial and interesting. Whilst discussing with her and posing questions to further my understanding and research, she began to discuss the unjust treatment of youth prisoners in Geneva due to the lack of capacity space in youth prisons. It appears that due to a lack of public interest in funding a new prison center, when younger convicts get condemned to prison, they are not given the chance to enter a prison that has been design and suited for younger inmates, instead they get sent to the normal prisons that host older inmates. This prohibits them the opportunity to advance and learn in order to successfully integrate back into society and become a changed self or developed self. This made me far more passionate therefore about my research question and I decided to alter it to focus more precisely on younger inmates instead of the general inmate in Geneva. There are also extremely relevant elements such as socio-economic background and culture that influence these younger individuals to commit crimes and more, I thought that this could easily be researched in regards to Geneva since it is a very rich canton that attracts a lot of crime from neighbouring countries such as France. When discussing with Mrs. Babel, I was always trying to relate the information provided to the global politics course and possible concepts and terms that were relevant, as well as the knowledge that she was providing. When it comes to the Swiss Legal system, and the one implemented in Geneva, it was very important for me to have a basic knowledge of it as it influences a lot of the decision making in regards to convictions and public/governmental infrastructure such as prisons, I had already done a bit of research and experience when I was an intern at a law firm and got a better understanding of the structure but Mrs. Babel helped me further that understanding. Overall, I believe this interview was a perfect start to my engagement in regards to my research question and helped me create not only a better line of focus but also further my general understanding of the swiss law system and more.