Modern Day Slaveships: Arra

Jails, in my opinion are modern day slave ships. As described in the novel Copper Sun slaves ships were crowded with slaves chained to one another lying in feces and urine from the top level down to the bottom deck the air reeking of infection and decaying human remains (Draper, Sharon M. 2006). The difference today is jails are use to “house” or hold pretrial detainees and offenders who have committed misdemeanors. Jails are operated mostly on a county level and seems to be the lowest priority in lowest priority in the “tight” local government's budget (Gaines, Larry K. & Miller, Roger Leroy. p.325 (2005). Similar to the slave ships, only difference is the “offenders” were not stolen from another continent they are the descendants of those who were forced to board those ships and take a journey to the Land of Opportunity. The modern day slave ships are equipped with central air in heat in some states but mostly funded by the taxpayer's dollars.
Jails though they are the initial “welcome” committee for the criminal justice systems serves other purposes in society. For instance, jails are also use to house inmates awaiting transfers to federal or state institutions and those inmates needing to be housed due to prison overcrowding. Jails are use to detain offenders in violation of probation of parole as well as several other purposes. I mentioned jails are the welcome committee for the criminal justice and as result of being a low priority in the government's budget in many instances these offenders and inmates are subject to overcrowding and other dismal conditions. The majority of the offenders currently being “held” in jails are minorities (those individuals discussed in the theories mentioned in previous chapters) this only supports the theory that jails are merely modern day slave ships. Therefore, depending on whose judging, but in my opinion, I believe jails and prisons are a very ineffective form of punishment for the “reported” offenders.