The Prison System

            I chose the prison system for this paper because I am very interested in this topic. I think it's interesting how prison is portrayed on television. For instance, the HBO show "Oz", which portrays prison completely different than it really is. On the show the prisoners dress how they want, and are allowed to smoke. On "Oz", inmates kill other inmates daily, with the help of correctional officers. Until I really learned about the prison systems in the United States, I thought that this was all very far from reality. It seems that in some prisons the inmates aren't being treated like criminals, but instead more like regular people.
             When an individual commits a crime the legal system prosecutes the criminal and ultimately imprisons him. Prisoners are sent to prison or jail because they committed a crime, something that was considered unacceptable and wrong in society. Therefore, they are sent to prison or jail to pay for what they did, to be punished. However, a lot of these prisons and jails that they are being sent to are made to be too comfortable and too accommodating. Prisoners are being entertained rather than being reformed. They are entitled to programs such as arts and crafts, music, television, occasional live performances, and leisure sports. Along with these activities prisoners are entitled to programs such as education and trade instruction. The reason many citizens are so outraged by these programs is because they are not offered in such a capacity to the rest of society as readily as they are to prisoners. .
             In many prisons, prisoners are served 3 hot meals a day. Breakfast might consist of eggs, bacon, cereal, fruit, juice, and coffee. Also, at jails and prisons prisoners have an open courtyard, where they have access to weights, basketball, and other recreational activities. The prisoners can earn their GED. They can also sometimes access books and computers. These prisoners are getting three meals a day, a roof over their heads, warm beds, cable television, recreational equipment, jobs that pay, and opportunities.