Race, prisoners, and jail

I always knew minorities had a big part in jails, but I never knew quite how much. After reading this article I've realized that officers can be racist when it comes to issues like these. I mean 99.2% of the kids busted were minorities, that's insane! I don't think this necessarily means more black kids or Mexican kids are doing crimes, I just think police officers are going to neighbors they know have crime more frequently than "white" neighborhoods so of course they're going to catch the minority kids. I think blacks already have that "bad guy" reputation and by seeing more of them in jail it just kind of proves to people that it's true. I'm not sure why it seems that more minorities are in prison than white people but it does seem to work out that way.
Referring to primary and secondary deviance, which we talked about in class today, I definitely think that most prisoners, once busted, will get busted again. Just by the stats alone it's shows that most prisoners once released will get caught again and be put right back in jail. I don't know if society's noticed or not, but this isn't good! Haha. I'm no expert or anything so I'm not sure how we can help prevent this problem, if there even is a solution, but jails aren't really doing the trick clearly. I don't think locking someone up for years at a time is really helping them to become a better person. It may keep them out of society's hands for awhile so they can't commit crime, but it's not helping them as a person. What these prisoners need is motivation. They're not getting that in jail. What they're being taught is jail is to listen to every instruction before you get beat and to behave well while in front of officers. What they do once in their cells is up to them but they will get punished for bad behavior. They are dehumanized when they are in prison and you can tell. They no longer have an identity and they aren't treated like normal humans. I think a better solution to jail is having a parole type thing but have them doing that the whole time instead of serving prison time first. This way they're helping the community and maybe seeing how much it sucks to have to clean up after criminals who do bad things. Also, they aren't trapped in a building 24/7; they can experience the real world still.
This article just goes to show these crimes are starting at a young age and since most prisoners are stuck in the "Vicious Cycle," then there's no wonder that people spend their whole lives in jail.

JAIL!! Was interesting...

So this week we took a little trip over to the DuPage Country Jail. We started off our morning seeing the court rooms. They were a little different than I thought they'd be. I was expecting to see people yelling and lawyers making statements and such but it wasn't this way at all. They were a lot more calm and organized. Just by looking at the criminal in all the cases you could make some conclusions. In a lot of cases they were African American or Hispanic. You could tell some came from poor backgrounds and according to the Conflict Theory this may be a reason they were given such consequences. If a celebrity had done the same crime they would probably get away with a lot more just because of their wealth and status. it was cool to see the court give them their punishments though and what they had to do. A lot of cases had parole after their time was up. The whole process was really quick.
Later in the afternoon after enjoying a nice lunch in the sun, we went into the jail. The Sargent who talked to us before seeing the jail was a little intimidating got to admit. I think that was his purpose and goal to prepare us and kind of give us a feeling of what it's like to be treated like an inmate, very controlled. The jail itself I thought was very clean and not like what you see in movies at all. Obviously it wasn't luxurious but it could be a lot worse. It was interesting to hear about how many arrested people they get monthly and daily. I didn't think the rate was that high, a little sad. I liked talking about possible rehab programs for the inmates instead. I don't think jail is the right place for some of the people there and if anything it might make them even more resentful and commit an even greater act of deviance when in there or when released. I think what we try to get out of people after putting them in jail is a learning experience so hopefully they don't do another crime but unfortunetly this is very unrealistic. Majority of the inmates in there once released, get arrested again. It's an awful cycle to be wrapped up in and once you're in it, it's hard to get out. Some theories were shown here as well, such as the Feminist Theory. Women do get a special attetion type of thing. They don't get treated differently but they are on a spearate floor and they have more rights when it comes to the sexual thing. Guy officers can't go up there alone or visitos, like us, because she could say the guy raped her. However, women officers or visitors can walk throught the guy area. Makes no sense. The jail itself uses the Labeling Theory by saying "Hey, what you did is wrong and it is an act of deviance, therefore you will be punished." I thought it was avery educational day and I liked seeing the "other side" of how life can be. I will never break a law now! (: