America the Free...by locking people up!

This week in Sociology, we learned about life in prison and how deviant "authorities" are to criminals. We read a story called "Courtroom 302" which follows the guidelines of the Cook County Jailhouse, and this story particularly interested me because I have heard a lot of stories about the atrocious prison but never really looked deeply into it. It talks about the ways life is in there and how the prisoners get treated inside. They treat the prisoners like pests and not human beings. They constantly yell at them and torture them, as if they weren't deprived of their whole selves completely. America deals with criminals so poorly, that thinking if they throw them all into jail will solve the problem. It's as if they're throwing all their junk in a small closet and then when they open it, it just flies at them and they don't know what to do. They confine them into a small area, deprive necessary nutrients, ignore their medical needs, and take away all of their self-dignity. They claim that it's what they'll "need" to heal; that they'll learn their lesson. Truth is, it's the complete opposite of that. Prisoners that go into jail and get out, are most likely to head back into there. Another big issue with the prisons in America, is how overcrowded they get and reach the capacity level. In California, they have the second largest federal system in the U.S., they hold over 200% their designated capacity and 75% of the prisoners come back after they get bailed. In a film that we saw in class, "30 Days in Jail," it shows how some prisoners have to sleep on the floors with just a small mat that's looks like a piece of cloth. They treat these prisoners like caged animals.