Prison

Site Visit Public Safety Center
The most significant part of the visit was finding out about the racial self-segregation of the inmates. The guards mentioned that they don’t have any segregation rules and that all the segregation is conducted by the inmates themselves with their own group politics.
The cultural factors that were significant were the “race cars”. The jail deputies explained how when a new inmate arrives they are forced to pick a race to associate with. If the inmate does not pick a race they risk beatings. The attitudes of the inmates are similar to that of the 1920s of race superiority. The race groups are split into Whites, Blacks, South Hispanics and North Hispanics. Among the race groups there are also sub groups of groups, for instance the KKK, Black guerilla family, The Aryan brotherhood, the Nazi low riders to name a few. The races that are not represented such as the Asian and Middle Eastern decent inmates have to decide between races not of their own, for instance most Asians join up with the Blacks and the Middle Eastern decent inmates join up with the Hispanics.
The race groups have their own inside politics and have strict norms between race behaviors. It was mentioned by one of the deputies that if a white man were to take a sip of coffee out of coffee cup that black man had drank out of he would receive a beating. The beatings they would receive would be dealt out during recreation time when the guards are not looking. The term “socking someone up” is a beating inflicted on a prisoner when fellow inmates place their coffee cops in their socks and pummel the inmate with the fashioned sling. The politics are very strange and curious, for example the North Hispanics and the South Hispanic factions hate each other. There is no reason for them to despise each other. You are singled out and hated based on your geographical location.
The significant social structure factors that were significant were the color coding of the inmates. The significantly mentally ill patients were labeled gray, High security inmates were labeled red and the general population inmates were labeled blue. The gray inmates were mentally ill beyond the normal mental state of the average prisoner. One of the deputies mentioned that most prisoners have an abnormal mental health condition, but the gray is where they put the worst of the worst. The section of the prison where the gray are kept, there are also padded cells for prisoners who are becoming a danger to themselves. There is a drain at the bottom of the cell, incase the prisoner had the inclination to slit their arms in which case has happened.
The significant ecological factors were the prisoner to guard ratio. The ratio is about 1 guard for every 66 inmates. Although the guards are highly outnumbered they have many things that are in their favor. The jail is very secure. The doors have a fail safe option where 2 doors cannot be opened at the same time, and when the door closes it has to be opened by someone monitoring the doors. The environment for the high security inmates is very cramped, they have a very limited space to live in. Their recreation area is very small compared to the the general population. The time the high security inmates have is spent in their tiny cells, and in their recreation time they have an area that is about 1/3 the size of an MJC classroom in founders hall. To our tours surprise we found 3 TVs in the general populations’ recreation area, which was considerably more sizeable than the high security inmates’ recreation area. The reason the inmates have such privileges is so that the guards have something they can negotiate with when dealing with a stubborn inmate. If the inmate doesn’t show compliance to the rules and regulations of the jail he can have is privileges removed. It gives the guards something to bargain the prisoners into compliance with.
The most significant way to reduce the problem of crime is mentioned on page 153. The most significant concept of crime deterrent is Certainty of Punishment. If our government focused on how to make the certainty of punishment a reality to prospective criminals the crime rate might have a reduction. The current mode of thinking that if we make the punishments more severe it will deter crime is flawed according to empirical evidence.