Jailed

Earlier this week, I took a tour of a new jail that it is under construction in our county.

It is a massive structure. It will hold 214 prisoners.

I have never been in jail. I am no angel,but I haven't done anything jail-worthy.



The cells are very small and designed to hold two people. Each cell has its own toilet, which is not private in any way.

There is no sunshine. The day rooms, which have tables bolted to the floor, have a frosted window.

The prisoners will never go outside. They won't see birds, dogs or clouds. They won't feel rain or wind.

My grandmother told me once when she was in the assisted living facility that she felt like she was in prison.

She was not. She was in a sanctuary compared to this place.

Even though the structure was huge, I felt claustrophobic and sick to my stomach when my time there was done.

I am very sad to see that we have this jail.

As a nation, we jail everyone regardless of what you do. I think we imprison a lot of people that need not be jailed. Drug users, for instances. (Not pushers). So long as they're not using and driving, who cares? If they want to kill themselves on drugs, let them, don't lock them up.

Better yet, get them into counseling and rehabilitation and turn them back into useful, productive citizens.

But nope, we toss people into the darkness and take away their humanity, caging them like animals. Maybe some of them are animals and deserve such treatment, but I honestly don't believe every criminal should be behind bars.

After we've done all that, we wonder why so many go on to commit more crimes.

We're too quick to lock people up in this country. We are the number one nation for incarceration, and it's not a statistic to crow about. You'd think that would be one of those other countries, those that we're always being told are the boggy-man. But nope, it's us.

We're the boggy-man. And I really think it's going to get worse before it gets better.