How Do Prisons Affect The Lives Of People In Jail?

In recent years, jail has become a hot topic in the media. With shows such as Orange is The New Black, Prison Break, and Lockup, for the first time, we can better understand the lives of people in jail. Not only can we view the workings of every-day life in jail, but we can further understand the reasons for them being placed there. It creates empathy towards people in jail and portrays their real experiences. One could say that it almost humanizes them, which presents the question of whether or not people in jail actually deserve to be humanized. Upon diving deeper into the topic, however, whether or not prisoners deserved to feel pain does not appear to be the central issue. The real matter deals with why each prisoner is in jail or more directly, the purpose of jails?
“Since 1970, the number of women in US jails has increased by 14 times, far outstripping the growth in male prison population” (Lartey). Women make up, “13% of the jail population but account for 66% of victims who suffer staff-on-inmate sexual victimization (Lartey). As the show Orange is The New Black portrays reason for jailing, the number of inmates jailed for nonviolent, drug related crimes, clearly demonstrates the impact felt by the War on Drugs across the United States. Furthermore, as Regina Arnold puts it, the increase in jailing demonstrates the impact of being labeled deviant, as an underprivileged youth. In any sense, it seems unclear why many of these women’s crimes require such long sentences. This is especially surprising given how little time is mandated for the number of crimes involving sexual