I'll Take Jail.

In the past month I have heard of two different people who chose going to jail over paying there fines. I am scratching my head and thinking "what the f*** are you thinking".

When I was 30 years younger I did spend a few days in jail for some minor misdemeanor stuff. I hated it. I was locked in a cell with 10 to 15 other inmates depending who was bailed out or moved to permanent residence. I was scared to death by the big black fellow that everyone in the holding cell deferred to. He liked me and I still did not want to make a long lasting friendship with the man. It was cold at night with only a thin sheet to cover yourself with. The mattress was a 30 year old thin bed roll with lumps the size of your fist. No pillow. The food was miserable tasting, white bread with peanut butter, no jelly, salty chicken noodle soup and watered down Kool Aid. The next day we had Bologna on white bread with butter and watered down Kool Aid. Breakfast was a treat, salty scrambled eggs, burnt toast and watered down orange Kool Aid. You had to get up early or the other inmates would eat your eggs. No TV, just stimulating conversation from the other inmates sitting around a hard picnic table in the center of the cell, telling you how they got screwed by the system or the "man". Not one guilty man in the whole cell. I know I was wronged by the Police Officers who beat me up in order to get me to go to jail. The rest of the guys I think were just lying about their innocence. Except for the big black guy, he said he shot his bitch of a girlfriend and was mad that she did not die. That dude scared me. After three days I had had enough. I shoved my way through some of the other guys, got to a telephone, called my attorney and said "GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE".

One of the people I know who has elected to take jail time over paying his fines I will call Clem. Clem was supposed to spend 28 days but only spent a week incarcerated then was let out early. He went back in front of the judge a week later who asked him to pay his fine and Clem refused. The judge told him to take a week and see if he could raise the money. Clem said even if he had the money he would not pay the fines he would rather work off his fines by spending time in jail. When I asked Clem why he doesn't just pay the fines his answer was. " Jail isn't so bad. I get fed, I don't have to do anything and they have cable TV. I get to have smoke breaks outside and when I finally get out I have a bunch of interesting stories to tell my friends. Besides it's a principle thing, I know it costs them more to lock me up than what the amount of the fines are. They are losing money on me". Clem went back to jail and spent the remaining 21 days on a low rent vacation. Semi private room at night and a large living room with couches during the day. It did not cost him a dime. It cost the taxpayers plenty.

The other person who chose jail over paying the fines I will call June. She only had to spend a week incarcerated then she was released early for good behavior. She knows how to work the system. She knew going in that they usually don't make misdemeanor cases spend the full time locked up because of over crowding in the jail system. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and sit on the couch and watch cable TV and she would be cut loose eventually. One week later, three days early, she was paroled. When I asked her why she took the jail time over paying the fines her response was, "I was laid off from work so I had the free time. I could sit at home and watch TV or I could sit in jail and watch TV. Whats the difference?" Whats the difference? Nothing I guess.

This whole Prisoners Rights bullshit has got to stop. The ACLU has made it so nice in jail that people don't mind going to jail. They would prefer to go to jail than to pay a fine. These country clubs for the wicked are being financed by the honest hard working people of America. Believe me I am all for incarceration for the guilty. Lets go back to the days like when I was in jail where it was not an easy time to spend. Get rid of the couches put back in the wooden benches. Cut out TV completely or turn the TV to the religious channel. No semi private rooms just big holding cells. Make it a punishment to go to jail not a vacation. No smoking in public buildings needs to be enforced so that you can not smoke until you get out of jail. No going outside every fifteen minutes for a smoke break. Lets punish the guilty not just separate them from the rest of society for a short time. P U N I S H, make them miserable so that they do not want to go back to jail ever again. If they are miserable they will reflect on what they did wrong. If they are sitting around watching TV and it is not that much worse than sitting at home they won't learn a thing and they will be back for another vacation in a year or so. The Penal system should penalize wrong doers. The House of Corrections should correct bad behavior.

I heard Clem and June were adding up their Crime and Punishment points to see when they will be able to cash in a one night free coupon. Enough is enough.