In class we have been focusing on the crooked jail system in the U.S. I personally feel that it is very sad that the people in the jail have to live in such a poor living condition for most of their life. I also feel that there is a flaw because of the large amount of convicts who get sent back to jail after they are released. One large issue I feel is that while some jails like the one in the 30 days video work on teaching people in jail how to get over drug addiction issues, they do not work toward making the convicts in to functional members of society. One key example of this is the convict George in the video. George was very anxious to be released from prison and had high hopes for his future. However, he was still sent back to prison when the movie was finished. I personally found this part to be very sad but it just goes to show that actions speak louder than words, and it teaches us how difficult it is to put a stop to a life of crime. In addition, I think it is awful that our jail system favors the more wealthy people. This is mainly because we see the payment of money as a way to relieve a person of their wrong doings. However this is unfair because it gives people with money an advantage in the court system. This can be seen if the Good Charlotte song, Life Styles of the Rich and Famous, when they say:
"well did you know when your famous you could kill your wife
and there's no such thing as 25 to life
as long as you got the cash to pay for Cochran
and did you know if you were caught and you were smokin crack
and McDonald's wouldn't even wanna take you back
you could always just run for mayor of D.C."
This tells of how the people who are wealthy have a huge advantage in courts and their punishments are not nearly as bad as those of the poor. Therefore, the jail system to day is greatly flawed against felons, and it gives wealthy a huge advantage.
I agree that it's horrible how the wealthier you are the easier it is to get off the hook. Look at anyone in pop culture. Many of them have been arrested multiple times, but few have actually had to serve time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's totally unfair that the wealthy have such a big advantage in the court system to avoid further punishments.
ReplyDeleteGreat reference to Good Charlotte. The song is referring to OJ Simpson and one point that I sometimes make in class is that the OJ Simpson case was always mistakenly made out to be about race but in reality the whole case was about class. He had the money and prestige and that's how the system is setup to function. Because of that, I wouldn't say that the system is corrupt - instead it functions quite the way it is supposed to, but that is allowing money to be a determinant.
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