Jail Time Is Not Easy Time

Dear Editor,

Jails and prisons are no longer in the business of rehabilitating people, but in warehousing and making money off them. I have been in two facilities (Franklin and Madison parishes) and neither one has any programs to help us. They are basically moneymakers for the small cities.

One example is if you are indigent, you are provided with a toothbrush, toothpaste, two bars of soap, deodorant, one note pad, one pen, two envelopes and stamps. However, they “charge” you almost $14 for this – so if somehow one of your relatives sends you anything you have to pay your creditor first! Telephone calls range anywhere from $3.50 to $8.75 for 15 minutes. Since you are not given a uniform they sell clothes, as well. I do understand we are here for a crimes whether real or imagined, however I find it extremely difficult to accept if I believe I was innocent and I went to trial (which is my constitutional right) my time could/would be doubled or tripled?

Also, who is watching the watchers? There are more drugs here than I’ve seen on television – how can that be when we are essentially on “lockdown” 24 hours a day?

I find it as a misnomer to have a “jury of your peers” when the jury consists of people not within your race or economic background. If I am 18 years old and black, how can five 50-year-old white women be considered my peers? And how can a person whom is paid by the prosecutor’s office be your defender? Public Defender Prosecutor is what most of them should be called.

Kevin Logan

Tallulah

Short URL: http://www.jenningsdailynews.net/?p=13859

Posted by Graphic Designer 2 on Sep 8 2012. Filed under Letters to the Editor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.