Ah, but there is the rub, and the reason this particular sheriff is so controversial - it is not a prison, it is a county jail, a place where a lot of folks are awaiting trial, supposedly innocent until proven guilty, yet made to wear pink underwear anyway. His behavior is cruel - county jails are full of the blithering idiots you see on Cops. The sheriff holds an elected office, and that about explains his behavior.

They come from really bad families. The abuse they suffer creates the rage that motivates them into their first crimes of violence - and violent crime is one of the few ways kids get locked up a long time. Once that happens, the State becomes a better parent than the one they had at home - it feeds them and clothes them and gives their lives meaning, but at the same time the social system among their peers brutalizes them, a continuation of what they had at home. So they are better off - still the victims of violence, but at least now they get a better meal. They become children of the institution. You are talking root cause - I am talking of the first point a machine statistic can be retrieved on a person. Someone who enters the system at a young age, serves a lot of time for a violent offense, is going to have a high probability of spending his life in and out of jail. Someone whose first stat is retrieved at 26, has a higher probability of doing a single term stint. This really brings into question whether it is wise to incarcerate young violent offenders. Batter up!

OK, I'll concede that subjecting people who are merely defendants awaiting trial to such punishment is not acceptable....But for convicted inmates, I see nothing wrong with it.

Mike

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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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