Vice:
How do we try to change whatever it was that brought someone into trouble with the law? And if that proves impossible, what is the best way that society can protect itself? I wanted to find out. I also wanted to see how much of what I knew—or thought I knew—about jail turned out to be true. So I wrote to corrections departments worldwide asking for access.
I discovered that I could go to jail in America as an “undercover voluntary detainee.”
I don’t know if the author is brave or stupid. Undoubtedly, a lot of both.
Absolutely deplorable that you would attack a real journalist while you write for a site that only gets traffic due to Jim’s connections to Apple PR
I expect you to apologize and retract this piece.
“/s”
Fixed your post for you.
Shawn was just being honest, not attacking in my opinion.
BTW, a “real” journalist who writes about incarceration and absolutely no idea what methamphetamine is?
I’ll forgive that on the grounds that the person in question was writing about something important, as opposed to inane Apple blogging.
I’m a pretty liberal guy but even to me that article seems overly slanted.
Now I’m not calling you stupid but I think what you just said is stupid. This site is popular to me just as much, if not more for the non-Apple posts. I’ll bet many others think the same.
So while you feel the publisher of this site is not “exactly bright,” you still don’t feel the site itself is beneath your notice. Where does that place you on that scale?
In the real world, people come here for Jim’s ‘yeps’
Not for anything else.
He didn’t go one of a America’s toughest “prisons”. He went to a jail. There is a HUGE difference between jail and prison.
It’s a shame journalists no longer seem to know the difference between jail and prison, but more of a shame that there seems to be no functional difference anymore.
There used to be a huge difference. Now, in places like Maricopa, jails mix convicts and non-convicts alike.
Even in Maricopa, I believe the jail population is still limited to those serving shorter sentences for lesser or mostly nonviolent crimes (possession, DUI, etc.). The author was not kept incarcerated with the most dangerous felons as his link-baity headline would suggest. Not that I’m up for a stint in Maricopa or any other jail for that matter, and I don’t doubt life in Maricopa is horrible.
And what about people arrested, not convicted, of violent crimes? Those guys are in jail. And how does the length of sentence diminish the fact that jails and prisons have become indistinguishable? There used to be one place for arrestees and another for convicts. Now there’s one place for both. Arrested or convicted for possession in Maricopa, the destination is the same.
I don’t know enough about the Maricopa population to comment intelligently, but I hope prisoners arrested for very violent crimes are kept separated from someone held for minor offenses. Perhaps not, and that would be one of the many issues with our system today. I would be curious as to the rates of inmate violence (beatings, rapes, guard assaults) in a place like Maricopa vs say San Quentin or Rikers (the type of place one imagines when reading the author’s headline).
a journalist is “undoubtedly” stupid for doing an undercover piece?
please, shawn, get real. do yourself a favor and audit some journalism courses at your local university — it will prevent you from looking like an amateur hack.
i doubt it. the non-apple content consists of beards, guitars, and beer. it’s stupid. were this site void of apple content it’s commercial viability would be nill. absolutely nill.
i normally respect your opinion, but thats a red herring. the content here that is valuable is 1) inside apple knowledge periodically disseminated. 2) an engaged comments section of interesting individuals (and ironically, disabled for the iphone/mobile version of this very iphone-positive site….doh)
the difference is less than you may think — my parish (county) jail is officially named OPP — Orleans Parish Prison. the assumptions you make are not valid.
“Towers Jail currently houses a variety of classifications to include pre-trial medium classification inmates, Chain Gang inmates, fully sentenced inmates (inmates removed from the Tents Jail for discipline reasons and inmates who are not able to serve their sentences in the Tents Jail for medical reasons) and veteran inmates.”
http://www.mcso.org/JailInformation/Towers.aspx
This is where they house chain gang inmates and inmates too unruly (or sick) to be housed in the literally named Tents Jail. But at least some of those guys are in chains.
BTW, San Quentin is a prison; Rikers is a jail. HUGE difference between them, or so I’ve been told.
Really? You couldn’t have read the second half of my sentence?
That’s not true. While there are links to articles as you suggest and some short blogs written about the same, there are also things like this link and other interesting articles and blogs and links as well. I don’t come here for Jim’s “yeps” or only Apple news. It’s a good mix I think. I actually find the articles/links/blogs about beards, beer and guitars to be less so than many other articles/links/blogs listed and written here. For those things I am not interested in I skip them. I would guess that I read maybe half of what is posted here. I don’t consider that a bad ratio at all.
i guess i disagree — if this site dropped its apple content, i dont think it wouldnt exist anymore. not in a paid sponsor, professional site sense of the word.
somebody want to start a beard/beer/guitar blog for us and see how much revenue it earns?
i did. but the first clause of your sentence is flat-out false — the terms can and are used interchangeably. so there’s nothing “shameful” about Reynolds using “prison” for “jail”.
http://www.opcso.org/index.php?option=com_simplelists&view=simplelist&layout=toggle&category_id=97&Itemid=726
….no offense, but some of you are just ignorant to this fact.
This is Vice we’re talking about. Stupid bravery is kind of their thing.
I would love to see you say that to Jim’s face. I stood with him by a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert and got to see him when he’s mad. (Some bozo dumped beer on him.) You wouldn’t like Jim when he’s mad. I’m betting his beard could whip your whiny little ignorant ass.
I’ve been in one of America’s toughest prisons – as a visitor. I have photographed inside the prison. I spent time with murderers and rapists. The Jefferson City, Missouri, State Penitentiary. Look it up.
The conditions in that jail in Arizona are deplorable. Far worse than in the Missouri pen.
Anybody curious where the photos came from? It almost looks like he had a camera (cellphone?) in prison.
It’s a shame ad hominem attacks take away from the point of the piece in the first place. Let alone such a broad, sweeping accusation of a whole profession based on one story?
Yes, he’s a big dumb guy like that. Anger is all he has. He writes like a 6th grade and just coats by off his Apple PR connections.
Actually, all you’re proving here is that you don’t know anything and spend your time in places where you have nothing good to say.
What are you, a Microsoft fanboy looking for opportunities to Astroturf? Samsung maybe?
I read this site for Jim’s ‘yeps’ and nothing else.
Look how stupid you are.
OK, that’s enough. Get back to the topic at hand or let it drop. Enough name calling.
You planning on apologizing or what?
In the U.S., there is supposed to be a difference between where we hold arrestees and where we sentence convicts. This matters because we are supposedly presumed innocent until proven guilty. I make no apologies for expecting journalists to recognize that difference.
That said, I further recognize we often blur that line. Per Mother Jones, “About 44 percent of the inmates [in OPP] are there awaiting trial, and haven’t been convicted of the crimes they were charged with.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/new-orleans-parish-prison-conditions-lawsuit-splc
OPP, like the Maricopa jails, functions as both prison and jail. In these cases, it would be accurate to describe them as both jail and prison, but that does not mean the terms are interchangeable, nor should they be.
Like any other publication, if a site is useful or enjoyable enough, I read it.
If it falls below a certain threshold, I go elsewhere. I try to refrain from posting bratty lectures about journalism to the site’s owner.
You won’t make anyone see the error of their ways and live up to your millennial expectations by throwing personal insults.
This is hardly the only such instance.
http://gawker.com/so-much-discussion-on-jail-vs-prison-not-one-mention-1602739299
People don’t understand the difference between jail and prison, and journalists who use them terms interchangeably only feed the problem.
Thanks.
We will have to agree to disagree then, nothing wrong with that.
I elect you. Don’t forget to invite MTW so he/she can make sure what you are posting is important and well written and bright enough. /s
Ha, I walked into that one. Shows my west coast bias in that I always thought of Rikers as a prison. It even regularly pops up on “worst prisons in america”. But it’s a jail, my bad.
In jail. He had it in jail. 🙂
Ha Ha, I almost but didn’t write “prison”
I’m a journalist myself. I know the language. Apparently you’re in need of a refresher.
Your argument is best described as sophistry, as well as being a logical fallacy since it’s an ad hominem attack. (Sophistry: specious, but fallacious argument.)
jail
jāl/
noun
1.
a place for the confinement of people accused or convicted of a crime.
“he spent 15 years in jail”
synonyms:prison, penitentiary, penal institution, lockup, detention center,jailhouse, stockade, correctional facility, reformatory, reform school;More
verb
1.
put (someone) in jail.
“the driver was jailed for two years”
synonyms:imprison, put in prison, send to prison, incarcerate, lock up, put away,intern, detain, hold (prisoner/captive), put into detention, put behind bars, put inside
“she was jailed for killing her husband”
Congrats on being able to read a dictionary. Too bad you didn’t put any effort into understanding the law. As I stated in a tangent thread, here in the United States, the two terms have specific uses. This is from our Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice.
“Jails are locally-operated, short term facilities that hold inmates
awaiting trial or sentencing or both, and inmates sentenced to a term of
less than 1 year, typically misdemeanants. Prisons are long term
facilities run by the state or the federal government and typically hold
felons and inmates with sentences of more than 1 year. Definitions may
vary by state.”
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=qa&iid=322
Yes, per dictionary, they are interchangeable, but the legal system draws a specific line of which you seem ignorant. As a journalist, you should know this, but you choose instead to feed the problem. You are, in this case, an exemplary journalist.