ModernGeek: Society in Jail

Moderngeek | February 11, 2007 | 9:22 PM

Society in Jail

"We tend to think of the law as some sort of oiled machine that works according to the regulations. The truth is that the law is administered by people with a great deal of discretion over how others are treated. The wardens and correctional officials can choose to humiliate a person in whatever way they want. They can put you in prison clothes that fit or in some that are way too tight. They can tell you the time or not. Leave you to languish or make a call for you. They can insult you and lie about your status or be kind."

This is a paragraph taken from Society in Jail, an article written by Jeff Tucker about a real prison experience of one man. I can personally vouch that this really and truly did happen. I know, that after reading this, I think that jail is a punishment I would never want to inflict on another human being. And, I think, that if you read this carefully, perhaps you will feel the same.

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Comments: 3

Jeff

on February 12, 2007 at 1:15 AM

I can agree with you to a point. If someone has commited a serious crime like murder, rape, kidnapping - something that cannot be undone, then maybe they deserve it. However, it is somewhat excessive and inneffective to put someone in jail for smaller things that can be fixed like - grand theft auto, petty theivery, traffic violations, minor assault (like hitting a few times, as opposed to beating to a pulp or stabbing, etc.) While someone like the Maryland sniper should definitely be locked up, someone who has commited a minor crime (which is in the eye of the beholder) doesn't need to spend the rest of their life in a cell with a stranger in a uniform deciding if their time there is going to be easy or hard. You can't lock up all of your problems. Believe me, I've tried it - my little sister ended up escaping the closet.

Moderngeek

on February 12, 2007 at 2:06 AM

I actually personally had a long talk with the person which "Society in Jail" is about. The guards there are made of the same stuff as the prisoners themselves. You can be an okay guy when you go in, but when you come out you're a hardened criminal. It's like sending people to the ultimate how-to-be-a-criminal camp. And, because there is no market system, everything falls apart. I firmly believe that because nothing the government manages has any system of market, nothing the government manages will ever work well. A wise man once said
The state in which the rulers are the most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed; and the state in which they are the most eager, the worst.

Thebandgeek

on February 12, 2007 at 3:22 AM

My uncle works with some prisoners at a local jail by his house and he usually tells me that they are all really nice people when you get down to it who don't really seem like they have done anything wrong. Most he speaks with are people who have done minor crimes yet are locked up for years at a time, which I think is a bit unreasonable. I don't think anything like that happened where my uncle works sometimes, but there is a chance and I think thats awful that it happens.