Jails: Yesterday and Today

Jail, just exactly what is it? How has it changed over the many,many years and centuries?

Lets start with the definition. According to the Webster’s Dictionary jail is defined as prison, to take into custody.

Now, lets talk about how it has changed.

In the very early years of jail you could go there for what we consider small things these days.Here are some of the examples: Adultery, witchcraft,taking someones land, believing that Jesus was on the earth. Now these are some of the earliest examples.

What would happen if you were jailed in those early years. You could be chained in a dun gen cell,you could have to do hard labor,you may even be stoned,whipped, hung on a cross, hung,burned at the stake,quartered,beheaded.I could go on and on.

One thing was for sure, people did not get in trouble to often and they were pretty much safe.

Now lets speed up to the last one hundred years,up to now.

You can go to jail for a number of things now,anything from drugs to stealing to sexual assault to murder.

In jail, now, you do have the death penalty but it is not as bad as say, the beheading.If you do not have the death penalty I would say you are living the good life for doing wrong.

Instead of hard labor to try and be reformed, you are now welcomed to three hot meals every day, heat and air condition, television time, a bed to sleep in, cloths and shoes, game and outdoor time and free medical attention.

No wonder we are in the shape we are in,no wonder crime is way up.

Just think about, jail then and now.