Jail is SUPPOSED to be miserable!

from JoeUser Forums

A blogger made a comment on another blog about the conditions in jail, from what they had seen on a movie. From what the blogger has written, I don't think they have much experience in jail.

I have been in jail. Many, many years ago (far more than I care to count), I "did my time", and I have to say that the conditions in jail, even in "the hole" are far better than is deserved by most of the inmates. In fact, the housing that many of the poorer among us have to rent is far less than the standard in jail. And the food in jail, while institutional, is usually adequate.

But should it be? Should we spend so much concerned with the comfort of those who have committed crimes against society? While there are people who are incarcerated because of "consensual crimes", the majority of crimes that mandate a lengthy incarceration are crimes where there is a clear victim and a clear motive to harm. Are we doing a service to ensure that these criminals will not reoffend if we house them in comfort because we're concerned about their physical well being?

Cable TV in jail should be the first casualty. In fact, ALL TV should be nixed. There's plenty of print media for those who needs sports scores and current events information. And it just might enhance the reading skills of those inmates who don't tear up the newspaper for rolling paper.

Kill all windows to the outside world. If an inmate is allowed to be outside, it should only be in a grey walled courtyard, where they can get sunlight, but where they're not allowed to turn in any direction and forget where they are. Remembering where they are just might remind them why they're there.

The food should be the same food, day after day. Give them enough to be healthy, but variety is a privilege many in the Third World don't enjoy, and neither should our prisoners.

Make jail a miserable place. Maybe then people won't want to be there. And they just might rethink their actions to avoid being placed there.

2,858 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
srsly, it is a country club now a days. A country club where you may get butt raped, but a country club none the less.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
srsly, it is a country club now a days. A country club where you may get butt raped, but a country club none the less.


Sorry, but I have to chuckle at that one. No, jail is NOT a country club. It isn't as miserable as it should be, but even as it is, no reasonable human being would want to spend more time there than necessary.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think eventually in the future you may see jails go high tech in that each inmate is drugged and given rehabilitation via Virtual Reality until they become 'Sane' again. Inmates are 100% isolated from other inmates and do not need to as much space to walk around, all is done via psychotropic drugs and VR.

Now granted this future may be far ahead, but eventually when technology get there and tax payers are sick of paying for more and more jails, who knows...

There was a TV show about this inthe 80's but I can't recall the name...
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm tellin ya, give the death penality for any crime and watch crime drop to almost nothing.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yup, mod...an oppressed society is a polite society.

Hope you don't mind if I shoot yer kid for jaywalking!

But seriously, there IS something to think about! While I am not a death penalty advocate, even I have to admit that if a death sentence were followed by a hanging the next sunrise, serious crimes would drop FAST
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: sushiK

The problem with your scenario Sushi, is the ACLU.  They will fight it as being cruel and unusual.

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I really agree that if jail time or at least the punishment came with serious consequences, i.e., death, or some other life-threatening results, there would be far less crime than there is now. Jail might not be (where I've never been or hope to be) a country club, although it seems to be otherwise, why do so many still commit crimes; a criminal being incarcerated to maximum prison or otherwise do not feel threatened enough and so they will keep repeating the cycle that takes them there.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think the reason inmates get these things is to keep them calm.

My gal pal was a social worker in the Waccen Hut (sp?) prison system in Mississippi. She said lots of the perks are given to keep the prisoners from rioting. Why not hire more guards? Because that company is private and there to make money....so they can't afford to hire one guard for every two-three inmates.

She left when they started discussing make the prison smoke free...that's not why she left..heh. But she said it caused a riot as soon as the inmates found out about the POSSIBILITY.

Riots mean over time, law suits, deaths, stuff like that. I guess the owners figure cable is cheaper.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
(lw posting on Hubby's account, I only have a minute here...)

LoL at getting rid of the TV. For me, the TV was part of the torture! We had one set for the 12 of us in our 'pod' and it was turned on at 7am (full blast) and not turned off until 10pm, (midnight on weekends.)

Gahhhh! 15 hours of B.E.T. at full volume for three freakin' months. Endless reruns of Sanford and Son, Good Times, Different Strokes, the Jeffersons, and Soullllll Traiiiiin! Oh joy. Oh yay.

And our 'yard' was exactly as you described, Gid. A small cement courtyard with walls high enough that they couldnt been seen over. We got one hour out there, twice a week. We literally had nothing to do. We could only have 2 books in our cells, and those could only be chosen from the jail library cart, full of ancient, torn up crap that nobody would want to read in the first place, and we had no 'entertainment' other than cards, checkers, or chess.

And the tv, of course. The infernal, loud, obnoxious tv.

It sounds good on the surface, to make jails meaner than they currently are, but you must remember one thing. Jails are usually populated by people either awaiting trial (some of them are going to be found not guilty) or people serving short sentences for minor crimes. Any sentence over a year long gets sent to a proper prison, where there are actually things to do to occupy your time with.

If the prisons DONT provide activities for the inmates, they'll devise their own, usually in the form of violence against each other or the staff.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
The purpose of a jail is to limit (in min-security) or remove (in ultramax) the freedom of the inmates. That is all. Why bother inflicting misery on top of that? You're already launching a direct attack on their soul.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply By: sushiK

The problem with your scenario Sushi, is the ACLU. They will fight it as being cruel and unusual.


How is it cruel though? I suppose if it was mandatory it could be labeled that, but if they made the program voluntary it would be viable.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
LoL at getting rid of the TV. For me, the TV was part of the torture! We had one set for the 12 of us in our 'pod' and it was turned on at 7am (full blast) and not turned off until 10pm, (midnight on weekends.)


Yeah, I agree...24 hours a day of BET is enough to drive anyone nuts.

Jails are usually populated by people either awaiting trial (some of them are going to be found not guilty) or people serving short sentences for minor crimes.


Oh, I'm well aware of that, Whip. Gid's prison reform system would include a different tier of jail for those already convicted than for those awaiting trial. If you're awaiting trial, go ahead and have the TV and the cuts of meat that you don't have to chew the gristle for 30 minutes to make tender enough to swallow because you can't cut 'em with those damn plastic knives. But when you're convicted, it should be another story. Even short sentences should have "hard time". The idea should be that decent people never, ever want to go back.

Why bother inflicting misery on top of that?


It's not "inflicting" misery, cacto. Why do criminals deserve a middle class standard of living (which is what they basically receive in today's prisons and jails in America)? You should have enough to get by and that's it.

I think the reason inmates get these things is to keep them calm.


There are other ways to keep them calm...seriously

And trust me, I will vouch for LW's comments about constant BET programming being sheer torture. And believe me, in the jail, that's all you will watch. Turning the channel will get you sent to "the hole" for your own protection.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm tellin ya, give the death penality for any crime and watch crime drop to almost nothing.


Yeah. The crime rate will drop off proportionately to those that commit crimes.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
24 hours of BET sounds like my college dorm's common room...
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top

24 hours of BET sounds like my college dorm's common room...

We had one TV.  In the commons room.  At least we all wanted to see SNL (in the Chevy Chase days).

Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
I thought jail was supposed to suck.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
I was surprised by your attitude to what they should inflict on prisoners when you have been there yourself?

I always thought having your freedom taken away from you, your privacy, your choice, and so much more was punishment enough.

The thought of being locked up and not being able to go for a walk or just sit out under the night sky makes me want to curl up and die. To live without all my animals would be the death of me too, that alone is a cruel punishment for me.

Incarceration is the price they pay for crime. Yes penalties should be increased, yes some punishments should fit the crime and all that, but you cannot take away their humanity by degrading them further.

Better to provide education so that an inmate can go out and take a new path in life.

Life in a prison community can be very harsh, an inmates life can be made very difficult if they show the slightest bit of weakness to the other inmates (generalising now) it is not a place where love or compassion exist. There is no need to make things more uncomfortable for them.

Show some compassion, there are some prisoners that are worth saving, not all of them are beyond redemption, a lot of the inmates come out and make a new start with excellent results - these may not have done so if they were treated inhumanely.

A little bit of understanding and compassion can go a long way.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
Show some compassion, there are some prisoners that are worth saving, not all of them are beyond redemption,


I have said over and over again I think we need MASSIVE prison reform, with a tiered prison system. Any prison system that puts a cat burglar in the same cell as a triple murderer or a rapist is a system that has no goal of reforming those who will be released again into society, and, in fact, invites recidivism.

I believe that "lifers" should be put into a super, super maximum security prison in a remote part of Alaska, with lockdowns for every prison transfer, while those who will eventually be released should be put into the "hole" when they first enter prison, and should EARN any "privileges" they have behind bars. Let them work for the extras, and let those who won't work do their hard time in the "hole". Nonviolent, first time offenders should be subject to house arrest, followed by probation rather than incarceration, and, ideally, should have continuing their education as one of the conditions of their probation.

But for those doing hard time, it needs to be hard enough that they don't want to go back.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
And considering that what...75%(?) of the people we currently keep locked up are there for non violent drug offenses, you might want to rethink your position here Gid.


See above. You know my view on prison reform, LW. There's nothing to rething. Nonviolent drug offenders shouldn't be in prison in the first place.
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
I don't think anyone wants to go back? Do you? I really don't know because I don't have much knowledge or experience in this other than what I've seen on TV or the movies. I wonder what reality is compared to the TV version. I saw that Morgan Spreelock is doing a show on life in prison on his 30 Days show on FX. I would like to catch it. It should be interesting. It's not on this Wednesday but next Wednesday.

I am well known to be a bleeding heart but I think they should be able to have some activities to do.
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
I don't think anyone wants to go back?


I know MANY who have no problem with going back, Loca. It is no secret that in colder climates, transients will deliberately commit petty crimes to get locked up over the winter so they have food and shelter. And many of the criminals are institutionalized; they really know very little other than life outside of bars, and don't feel comfortable.

I don't know whereit currently stands, but in 1989, the recidivism rate among criminals was over 95%. That means that 19 out of every 20 inmates would be back. That would indicate to me that they DO want to go back; otherwise, they'd change.

As for activities, sure. Give them BOOKS. Jail should be a place where you do not ever forget where you are. You can treat them humanely without giving them extra privileges, and by doing things right, they might find the tools to get out of that trap.

I was only spared from that life by a wise judge. Of the people I was incarcerated with, I do not know of a single one other than myself that went on to a respectable life. And I met a LOT of them again on the outside.