Jail system corrupt?

This week in class we discussed the jail system here in the US. All of the readings and information we learned on the topic was shocking to me. 1% of our population is in jail, mostly for DRUGS? That seems absurd to me. Also, the fact that about 2/3 of people released from prison will be back in at some point in time. This just shows how the system clearly is not working! What shocked me most I think is that there usually are not programs to help people in jail. If someone is arrested for their drug use, maybe they need HELP to recover from their addiction, not to be locked up in a small room. The jail system is hardening criminals and encouraging drug use rather than solving the problems of the people and helping them to change. Another issue that clearly needs to be resolved is the issue of innocent until proven guilty. In the court and jail systems, it seems that oftentimes people are not given a fair chance to defend themselves and are simply assumed guilty. Last semester, in Political Though, we read the book, No Matter How Loud I Shout, which was about the juvenile justice system in America. Reading that novel further showed me how even with the treatment of juvenile crimes, they are choosing to lock up people rather than try to get them therapy and rehab. If people are merely in on drug use charges, I think that rather than over crowding the jails, rehab would clearly be the better option, but this is not the case in most of the country. Another clear issue is the lack of help for people with mental diseases. More people with mental disorders are in prisons in America than are in mental hospitals. This statistic is mind blowing to me! Overall, there need to be many changes to our court and jail systems, but I do not see major changes occurring in the near future, which is a sad fact.

Saints and Roughnecks

This week in class we read the story Saints and Roughnecks. I think that it has made the social class "discrimination" more easily seen. With this, it is not necessarily discrimination against the lower class citizens, but it is based upon their image or others perceptions of them, and the resources they have available to them. In some ways, Stevenson does have saints and roughnecks. Often times kids who are more involved and polite in class get an upper edge. People assume that these students are also good kids in the world outside of school, when often times this is not the case. Also, there is a perception that any kid who is not excelling in Stevenson must be a bad kid and involved with illegal things outside of school. At Stevenson, we are pushed so hard to be involved and do well at school that sometimes it is hard for people to see what students would be like in a different atmosphere, outside of school. This is oftentimes where the illegal actions occur, and while at school it is difficult to tell! Sometimes it is even hard for me, a fellow student, to tell if another student really is as good as they appear to be at school. Since Stevenson is such a large school, it is hard to designate two groups that fall directly into these two categories in the story, but there are students that fall into these saint and roughneck divisions.

Masculinity

In class before break, we discussed masculinity and how our culture here in America promotes certain things to boys. I think that it is extremely evident that in America, a majority of the violence is male dominated. From a young age, boys are taught they should act differently from girls. Females are supposedly the weaker sex, which is a mentality easily seen in society today still. In Mexico, this past week, I saw two fights break out, both of which were between guys. This just goes to show that aggressiveness is part of what we, as a country, instill in our young men. The fights that broke out were between guys that barely even knew each other, over extremely trivial matters. As a member of society, I think that it is greatly overlooked that there is such a different view on both males and females. We are taught to ignore the differences that society places between the two genders or merely accept them. To some extent, I think that this has always been the case. When we faught for equality for woman, we have made huge advances in some aspects, but still we are seen as the weaker sex.