Editorial+Paper

Editorial

Two Wrongs Still Don’t Make a Right

In America people are put into jail because it’s believed they have committed a crime, or wrong doing of some sort. Society says that the criminals are extremely harmful to our society and that they can‘t walk amongst us. Jail is and always will be an unpleasant place to be just because of the conditions, but imagine double the punishment. What do I mean? Prisoner abuse, it’s mistreating a person while they are incarcerated or under arrested. There are several different categories that abuse can fall into, such as, physical, psychological, sexual and denying them of certain civil rights. In December of 2007 it was reported that one in twenty prisoners reported being raped. In a nation population of 1,570,861 inmates 70,000 were savagely raped. Jamie Fellner, senior counsel of the Human Rights Watch, stated the following “When nearly one in twenty prisoners are being raped or sexually abused behind bars, its clear prison authorities aren’t doing enough to prevent these serious crimes.” Just because someone is be held in prison doesn’t mean they deserve the daily torture of being raped, they have already been punished and they should be able to serve their time without feeling as though they are humans. Prison guards are allowed to have their opinions on the incoming and current inmates, but having already made up their minds on them doesn’t mean it’s ok to hit and curse at them. The job of a prison guard is to make sure that the prison is running smoothly, inmates are safe as well as staff, and to help better those people to get them out of their faster and on the right track. The New York Times had written about the state of Virginia and Wallens Ridge Maximum prison stating that inmates were forced to were black hoods to make it impossible to spit on guards. Why would they do something like that you ask, it’s simple. They made reports explaining that the guards would often beat them as well as cause them even more humiliation by ordering them to do silly outrageous behaviors. On the day to day scene prisoners must deal with one the fact of being in jail, two having to fight for survival in there, and three living with the consequences of their actions for the cause of them being placed in such a dreadful environment. If that is not psychological enough having other inmates mess with your head, imagine a guard playing mind games with you. If prisoners anger the guards there is bullying from the other staff. They will yell degrading names, throw in it your face as to why you are behind bars, pull on every emotion string you have left. The guards make inmates feel lower then scum of the earth, and aren’t satifised with just the name calling and such, they must always take it to the next level of hitting, spitting, or raping. Two wrongs do no in any situation make things right. Prisoners should of known better and should have taken serious thought into what their actions where so that they didn’t end up in a place like jail or prison. The Prison guards and other staff members should be more professional with their jobs. While they go to school and are being trained I don’t believe anywhere in the guidelines does it say beat on inmates whenever you feel like it. Yes, they are allowed to form their opinions that is fine, but do not physically take these inmates into your own hands by partaking in Prisoner Abuse. They have to spent months, years, and maybe even a lifetime behind bars, in some cases that is punishment enough. Sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on a human, any human, is clearly unacceptable and should not be tolerated. America needs to begin to take this problem into their hands and make sure that not only the jails and prisons running smoothly but that their inmates, who yes, made poor choices, are as safe as possible from guards, other staff, and other prisoners.