Jail is a revolving door

This week in class, we learned about one of the most shocking and disturbing things that our society deals with daily, jails. When I think of a prison, I thought of a place a lot like how Law and Order or any of those cop shows portray it as being; They are dirty, the guards are mean and violent people, and the prisoners hurt one another. I thought this was television making an over exaggeration, but I was wrong for the most part. Some jails in America treat people with no respect and think locking them up for a few months will solve the crime problem. We read a disturbing article about how guards in a jail would not care if their prisoners were sick, because they thought they were just going through withdrawal. The guards treated these people inhumanly, and did not recognize they were citizens as well fighting for their lives. It is really sad to think that in a country that other countries look up to, that we are treating people horribly and do not care about them. Instead of sending drug dealers or other criminals back to the same neighborhoods they grew up in (they are surrounded by the same exact things), we should give them counseling and help them find jobs. This is what some jails are starting to do, but I honestly think that it is ridiculous that jails are just starting to do that. Jail is suppose to be a place where criminals go so they can fix their mistakes and think about what good they can eventually do in the outside world, instead, it turned into a place where they are treated like caged animals. Criminals are leaving jail and going right back into another usually within months, but I think if we really continue with the counseling and helping these people get back on their feet, it will make a significant difference. Because anyway, in the land of the free, our jails should not be overcrowded and new ones should not be continuously being made.