I’m not a licensed social worker, but have been working for the Public Defender’s Office for over 10 years.
If you know anything about working in criminal law with the PDO, you already know that it’s social work by any other name.
I work with marginalized groups that are supremely poor, mentally ill, suffer from addiction, and are repeat offenders.
My job IS social work. I manage rehab, medical care, their criminal charges, and often am asked to go above and beyond and go feed their dogs or pick up their kids from school when they go to jail.
I help them get back on Medicaid and food stamps when they get out. I help them get social security turned back on. I help them get into halfway houses when they complete rehab. I make calls for them when they need a job.
I do all this with a willing heart. It is my service to an already kicked around community of people suffering from historical racism, classism, and whole truck load of -isms that I’m not going to list.
I was laid off last year. The state decided that because I’m not a lawyer, my job wasn’t essential.
I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully to find work. Turns out my 10 years experience as a paralegal at the PDO isn’t worth shit because the public defenders’s office is the red headed step child of the legal system. No offense meant to red headed step children. Just that the rest of the legal world thinks we are scum.
It’s also apparent that my experience in social work isn’t worth shit, well, because I don’t have a masters degree in social work.
How many MA candidates have actually sat in a jail cell with an alleged murderer and talked to them about how thier kids are doing and helped them make plans for if they get convicted and go DOC for life?
How many MA candidates have talked down schizophrenics while they were in a stand off with cops and were prolly gonna get shot?
How many MA candidates have successfully walked people with meth addiction from the bottom of a jail cell back to a full time job and a real life?
Yeah. I’ve done all these things, and seen/heard lots of other stuff that would probably curl your toenails.
Interestingly, I can totally apply to be a cop or probation officer. Those jobs have zero education requirements and offer perks like qualified immunity and a gun!
We require social workers to have very expensive degrees, complete arduous clinical hours, and then pay them shit. Granted, I’m willing to take shit pay, I’m aware that these jobs are not highly valued. I don’t do this work to get rich.
But there are SO MANY job listings. So much need. The system is broken.
Thanks for listening.