Please Enter Through The Revolving Door -->

This week in class, we focused a lot on jails and crime-committers. We took the time to look at different jails and how the guards treat the inmates. It turns out that the inmates are treated much more harshly than I would have ever imagined. The guards basically dehuminze them. In the video we saw on one jail in West Virginia, the inmates had to be locked up in a "day room" the entire day and then later locked up behind closed doors - not bars, but heavy, thick doors. This way, they were assured they had absolutly no freedom. I have always expected jail to be harsh, but not as bad as what I saw this week in class. I think that the prisoners have a right to be treated with lesser value than they would be if they were free, but I do not think that gives the guards the right to dehuminize them. At first, I felt, well, they committed the crime, they must serve the time. But then we started seeing a patter in jails: the prisoners always come back. It is like a revolving door. Lets say one man got put in jail for drugs for 10 years. He is being treated like an animal those 10 years, just craving to get out and get back to what he is used to. So, after his time has been served, he goes out and just does the same drugs as before. In jail, the inmates arent taught HOW not to go back to old habits and crimes, they are just punished. I feel like if they are going to be serving that time, the guards and police in the jails might as well make it useful and teach them lessons. If jails actually had seminars or classes that helped and educated the prisoners, I think we would see a huge difference in the number of people who return to jail after they have already been imprisoned before.