Reason First: What Should Prison Life be Like?

A makeshift grill displayed the contents of inexplicable food items. As the flames licked at the pan, the chef spoke to the camera that he was “Doing what we doing….” Where is this? A barbecue pit in Kansas City, Missouri? No, this is a nondescript penitentiary USA.

While inmates fulfill lengthy terms and others do skid bids, the privileges afforded to these criminals is just astonishing. Rarely does an inmate get hypothermia in the or die of heat exhaustion in the summer, and they get the best medical, mental and dental care that rival outside facilities providing such services.

Murderers, rapists, thieves, and all other types who have run afoul of the law and have been caught, can luxuriate with all kinds of ammenities. There are approximately two million people locked up in the United States. Of those inmates, they can boast how they made prison meals on their own and engaged in conjugal visits. Braggarts can offer the spiel about how they’ll be locked up for the rest of their lives but can boast a doctorate in Sociology. And all of this comes from, of course, the taxpayers' pockets.

As it is proper for government prisons to remain a way for upright citizens to be guarded from the worst that society has to offer, the recidivism rates wouldn’t exist if prison actually provided a place for individuals to repent of their wrongdoings, not have parties and clown around like prison life is some great big jamboree.

To give the inmates who will reenter the general population away from the wall, education and tools for guiding a proper life, that would boost the idea of the second act in a former cell holder’s interaction with the rest of the country.

In what may seem ironic, the best place for some of these people to be is within a six by eight foot enclosure. As they enjoy their commissary and are able to participate in pastimes like exercising and sports like basketball, it should come as no surprise that some people ask for more time. Either they snitched and requested witness protection, or they would go back to worse conditions in the “world,” inmates must make the ultimate decision to seek self-preservation.

The culture of prison has been well-documented in serious journals to Hollywood movies. Rape, stabbings, suicides all contribute to the idea that the penetentiary is a danger zone. “Incarcerated scarfaces” illustrate how faces get slashed and require a “buck fifty” (a hundred and fifty stitches). But at the same time, there are a whole host of rehabilitation programs that provide for those who want to improve themselves, scholastically and physically.

Whenever there are inmates showing off watches and able to cook entire meals as if it’s some great hoedown, then you know that some things just shouldn’t fly behind bars. As the men in the video above discuss their “discreet” ability to serve a dish not found in the chow hall, it is necessary for citizens who live good lives and want nothing but to ensure that people do their time to encourage lawmakers to clamp down on such behavior.

It is only right to address the constant barrage of helping people that didn’t help anyone else, especially not themselves to understand what the penitentiary is actually used for in America. It is the place where the individuals can know that they committed an act or acts that breached the laws of the land. Now, some may be innocent among those millions of inmates. However, the justice should be meted out with just as much fervor and intent as the guilty ones showed. To an extent, all inmates should be treated with a level of respect that corresponds to their crime(s). By permitting them to just barbecue whenever they feel like it is like allowing them everything but the one thing they value the most: liberty.