Is the U.S. Penal System Serving Justice On Criminals?

December 5th 1990. The day I was born into a society of criminal acts. Not having any idea of what or why people did such things like killing another person or robbing someone, I was put right in the thick of it just like everyone else. All humans start off normal, as an innocent infant that knows very little about everything. As you grow up you gain more and more knowledge of good and bad people and good and bad surroundings, you become accustomed to how things play out and things start to make more sense. You'll watch a movie at the age of 5 and not understand one thing that's going on. But then you watch that movie again a few years later and you figure out the things that you didn't get the first time. This happens to everyone. Theres even a good chance that movie was based on a man or woman performing some kind of criminal activity that led to them being thrown into jail. Well at that time of me being 5 and watching movies that i knew nothing of, Timothy McVeigh masterminded one of the most notorious acts of crime in U.S. history. The Oklahoma City bombing. This was an act of a coward and had nothing but stone cold ill intentions. It claimed 168 lives (many of them children) and left about 800 injured. McVeigh was one of the worst type of criminals that there is and there are and have been many like him in the past and present. Men and women alike have to be handled appropriately...As i grew and saw major convictions of men like O.J. Simpson, Scott Petersen, and Michael Jackson, I started to take notice at all the wrong things that people do. Although 2 of the men just named were found not guilty (everyone has their own opinion on that), they were still thought to have murdered and sexually abused. This behavior is disgusting and criminals who act them out should always pay for their suspected crimes. Growing up my parents always watched court shows (and still do). I never got into it like they did but I always would take notice. Up until last year I became interested in the hit HBO show Oz. As I bought the seasons I became more and more committed with learning about men and women in prison and the crimes that put them there. Even though Oz wasn't always realistic it still showed lots of realism. This started me off with the whole "prison thing," and I have been interested ever since. Reality shows such as Lockup on MSNBC show true inmates serving all types of sentences for various crimes (not all violent). Since learning of the show I've kept watching it and just by the men being interviewed you can tell the hate they have and the pain they feel. Some men are sick in the head and believe they have to kill someone just because. And others do it as a sport. Others just do minor things that lead to worse things. Either way, they have to be contained. The real question is, should anyone care what they feel once locked up?

Criminals both male and female, have different characteristics that turn them into convicts. On a rare occasion, individuals get tossed into jail because they were mistakenly blamed. This is never fair but having no one take responsibility for a crime is even worse. From holding centers to maximum security prisons, all try to serve the same cause. That is to lock up animals that simply cannot cope with everyday life. People in general have a right to feel safe at all times. No one wants to live in a world of constant fear. The funny thing is lots of those innocent people cry against the death penalty but every year thousands of criminals get let out of prison to potentially poison society all over again. Who is to say that these men and women are "normal enough" to return to the real world? One thing is for sure, no matter who says what, some are cured and way more are not. A good amount of them are more intelligent than the average Joe but regardless, if it smells like a rat and looks like a rat, then chances are its a rat. Should the system allow thugs and drug dealers and other multiple offenders of crime the possibility of parole at all? This is what accumulates my interest because I wonder why they did what they did. That to me makes them even more of a threat to an innocent by standard because if they had a life going for themselves why throw it away for a senseless act of aggression or whatever the crime may be. This is why "crime-minds" should be punished, and hopefully the desolate walls of prisons does the trick.