Placer_County_Jail_Tour

Jail Tour As the last part of our class we went to the placer county jail for a tour of the facility. The jail is a representation of the last tier of the AJ 50 class, corrections. We started out the tour by waiting in the room where family members of the convicted came to visit them. The walls were lined with Plexiglas and the phones were placed at each seat to each providing the communication between convicts and their families. It was a fitting place to start the tour, a look at how you are kept from the outside world. To show that not only do they confine you to the cold walls of the jail but you are separated from your family and loved ones by a thick piece if glass; so thick you can’t hear the other person through it. To be so close to another person, but be so far is in itself a punishment when you are locked up for a long period of time and all the company you have are other inmates. I can only imagine the torment a person would go through if they had children. But all of this fits into the whole idea of justice and incarceration and only a deterrence once you know what it’s like to be on the inside of those walls. As a starting point I would say that this was quite fitting. We then went to the booking area where the officers showed us how they collect all the persons belongings, tag them and fill out the report about each item. They told us that most of the time the line to this area spans out the door. An area so small to take care of so many people coming in daily seems like it would be a hectic job to do. I even got a glimpse while walking of someone being brought in and the procedure being done. The holding tanks for inebriated individuals were next, the booking area and the holding tanks being next to each other. The rooms only consisting of a wall in front of a toilet for privacy and the rest just flat tiled floor. From there we went down a few hallways, going through a few doors. All of the halls have a red and blue line on each side. The red showing where the person is to stand, and the blue to show where the person cannot go past towards the wall. Another reminder of the structured lives of the inmates inside. The next stop was the cells for violent offenders, separated from the rest of the people for every ones safety. The cells consisting of only a cot and a blackened out window. The cots looking like it only has just enough padding to be considered padded. The life of anyone in this cell would seem like it would drive me crazy, to have no stimuli to get you through the day. The area for showering was only a small room with no door and locked doors at each corner of the room. The area had been shut down as of recently because of budget problems. On the way to another part of the jail we walked by several rooms that were dedicated to teaching inmates. One area I saw a teacher teaching math, in another I saw several rows of computers that were not being used at the moment. The idea was to help whom ever wanted a high school diploma to help them get it. A very good idea to at least try to send them out into the world, once their sentence is over, with something more than what they came there with. The final area that we were shown was the lookout for several blocks of inmate housing. The area we were in was a dorm like set up where they have rows of bunk beds and an area down stairs that they could stay at whenever they wanted. I saw many of them playing games of chess or cards or other simple type games. All together it looked over three different blocks, two for men and one for women. I did notice the ratio of men compared to women; I would say a four to one ratio if not more. If I had the choice I would much rather spend my sentence in that area then in a cold cell. The sun light coming in through the ceiling was really nice compared to the other florescent lights everywhere else in the jail. From there it was a short walk back the where we started out at, the visiting area with the thick Plexiglas windows. I enjoyed the tour very much and I hope to do more tours of other jails so I can become more familiar with how things may differ from one jail to the next. It is very evident from the beginning how justice is upheld in incarceration. We take for granted how much we are free, how we can walk right out our front doors or drive to see family or to even to go to work. The people that end up in jail deserve to be there because their actions. But I cant say that without setting the tone for how bad of a place it is to be. How in a worst case, you are to spend 23 hours a day in a cell half the size of your bed room, that you have to do what others say at all times. That in the best scenario you will have to share bunks with other people all around you and use a communal shower. This may not sound that bad, but seeing it in real life made it much more intense to understand what kind of life a person would have behind bars. So throughout this essay about my tour of the Placer County Jail I have talked about what the inmates see and how they live. But what I find most important is that the ideas of jail and prison is to make it so you don’t want to come back, a kind of post deterrence for criminals. That’s why the idea of people still choosing a life of crime knowing they risk the chance to go back is beyond comprehension. In a way it is a social debt when a criminal goes to jail. Society has had to live with you for long enough, now is time to for you to be taken away for a while to hopefully teach you a lesson. Even if you don’t learn your lesson at least the communities got a chance to have you away from them and be slightly safer. When it comes to justice I think that this is the best way to serve the majority of people. Rehabilitation is also a good idea for certain kinds of criminals, but for only certain kinds. If someone can be changed from a drug addict to an outstanding person of the community I’m all for it. That’s why we should not forget that in some cases rehab is the best idea for some people, but we also need to remember that those things don’t work for everyone, just like the people that go to jail or prison, and once out go back to the same crime-filled lived they used to live. That why jail, although not a perfect system, is still a fitting punishment for the masses. If they wish to be a burden on society, then let them think about it while they have their lives dictated for them in jail or prison. In conclusion, the tour of the jail was quite an eye opener for myself. We like to think that the movies we watch are based on real events, but they hardly ever are; sometimes they only serve to misshape the way people view incarceration. My belief is that when a person goes to get a driver’s license, that person should be required to take at least one jail tour. If we show these things in real life to the youth it may leave an impression in them when bad choices are in front of them. I very much enjoyed the tour and hope that it is included in all future AJ50 classes, it was an important experience for future law enforcement individuals and everyone else.