Why Put People in Jail?

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You will never ask yourself this question until you have been there yourself. For most people it is normal that they put people behind bars when they brake the law. It has always been like that, so this is the way it is supposed to be.

I say it is bullshit.

I agree that there are a few people out there that really have to be put behind bars, but most people that are in jail or prison should not be there. It is a humiliating experience. Yesterday I watched two programs on TV about people in prison and one lady said it very right "They treat you like you are not human". And this is what I wanted to write about. Once you are put behind bars you have no more rights, you are nothing, you are categorized even lower than an animal. Because animals have more rights than people that are in a prison. I was put in jail after I hit my son who insulted me. They put me in a big room filled with all kinds of people sitting and laying all over the floor. There was no more room to sit, only to stand up and the temperature was almost freezing. This we were told was to keep the smell down. I had to sleep lying on a cold floor and I had almost no clothes on me. Then I had almost a fight with two guys who wanted to take my space. It was hell. Later when they transferred me from jail to prison they put chains on my legs and my hands and tightened me together to another inmate. I thought that they did that only in the movies and only with the very dangerous guys. Then when they let me free, they kicked me out with only my pants and my shirt on. I had no wallet, no ID and no money. And they gave me a restraining order so I could not even go home for one month. So what do you do. When I got arrested and was sitting in the police car in the back seat while the officer was filling out the paper work, another patrol car stopped next to me and the officer started to make fun of me. At that moment I lost respect for police officers and I trust none of them.

The law says that you are not guilty until proven guilty. So why do they put people in jail before there is even proof of being guilty or not. You can be the most honest person in the world you could be as good as mother Theresa but if you are at the wrong place at the wrong time, you can end up in jail and you will be treated as a criminal until you can prove that you are innocent. It is not the other way around. There are thousands of innocent people in jail right now and they will all be treated as criminals with all their rights taken away.

One man that was in prison said "This place tears you down, physically, mentally and spiritually". Another said "After the tears go away it just does not matter anymore". These are very sad words and it brings tears in my eyes when I hear this. Being put in jail is being tortured mentally for the time you will be there. One woman said "I will die before I come back" this is how bad it is. These people probably have committed very bad crimes and they deserve to be punished. But why so severe. People are put in jail for several reasons. They made a bad decision, problems with drugs, hanging out with the wrong people or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They call them losers of society. So the people that are not in jail are the winners, the honest people. How many bad people that really deserve to be in prison do you think are out there? And many of them them have very high positions and are respected citizens.

One thing I never understood is how they come up with the number of years you have to spend in prison. How do they determine if it is 25 years or 30 or 45, well a few years more or less who cares, they are all losers anyway, the scum of society, and as long as it is not me who cares, right?

They said that overcrowding is a concern in Los Angeles. They put 6 people in a room 10' by 10'. There are more than 2,000,000 people behind bars in the U.S.A. right now. And the government spend more money on jails than on schools.

For the people that are in prison, the only link to the outside world is visit, and more than half of the inmates don't get visitors.Then 40% of the people that go free will end up back in prison. This is normal because nobody wants to hire an ex convict and most of these people have no skills either And they get almost no support after they leave. What I think is stupid too that they let the people go free at midnight. I remember a friend of mine that they let him out at midnight and had to spend the night under a bridge while the weather was freezing cold. Welcome back to freedom.

Then a lot of people in jail want to commit suicide. So they put these people in special rooms with constant vigilance to protect them. What is the deal here. They put people in jail to punish them and then try to save them from committing suicide. Why spending all that money on trying to protect this man who is tired of this life of misery. They should help him and relief him from this pain of torture instead of torturing him more by keeping him alive.

The only thing that people can expect in prison is more punishment after you behave bad. But there is no incentive for good behavior. They should treat people like people not like dangerous animals and separate them from their family and friends. They should find a different way of separating people from society. As we all know, most people in jail are not dangerous people. They could be held like in a military base society or in a commune where they can live and work like a normal person and can receive and spend time with friends and family. If they don't behave right then they can be moved to a more restricted area. But if they behave very good then they could even get a pass to go home for a few days once in a while. It does not all have to be everybody behind bars like wild animals with no rights all the time. This is something that is against all human rights. To separate mothers from their children is against the human rights too but who cares.

Now if we analyze why people end up in jail then I belief that we all have contributed to this because of the way society is build. If you have money or intelligent you will have no problem. If you are not intelligent and poor at the same time then you are in trouble. What are you going to do to survive. *If you don't get a job who will feed you and your family? If you can only survive selling drugs or rob somebody then this is what you must do or just sit there and die. When women have unwanted children or single mothers who have to go to work and must leave their children alone. These children will get together and form gangs where they feel like part of a family and become anti social. Who is to blame for all these problems? It is the people who are intelligent and have money. They should provide for a way out for these unfortunate people.

The government should provide food and shelter for anybody who has a need for it. They should provide a place for children where they are taken care of when the mother is working. The government is providing for all this but in the wrong way. Instead of providing these people with food and shelter in a peaceful manner they let them first commit a crime and then they will provide them with food and shelter in prison. And at the same time make more criminals out of the children who are left behind while their parents spend their time in prison.

But I don't see this happen very soon but it would be nice if we could live in a more peaceful world. Only if the government which is we the people, will start to take care of the less fortunate.



Over 2,000,000 people are now in US prisons

More than half are non-violent offenders, many on trivial drug charges

25% of the world's prisoners are behind bars in the US

Federal prisons expect a 50% increase in the next six years

Prop 21 wants to put juveniles behind bars for offences like graffiti and shoplifting