Freedom And The Conception Of Freedom In Jails

There is humanly no possible way to merely or easily define what “freedom” truthfully is, as every distinct person and each social order has opposing restrictions for what this belief is. Bureaucrats and social researchers, for example, have vastly diverse philosophies of what institutes freedom. This primeval belief has been ingrained into mankind since the beginning of time. Century after century mankind has fought in numerous wars for this concept of “Freedom”.

James Gilligan relays an enlightening message in his article, Beyond the Prison Paradigm: From Provoking Violence to Preventing It by Creating “Anti-Prisons”, about the history and sole purpose of jails. Gilligan dates his research about jails all the way back from the first civilization known to man, Sumerian, to the jails we see and know so well today. At the beginning of time jails literally meant “house of darkness” which when compared to any of today’s jails is very similar to our maximum security facilities with solitary confinement. Jails were first used as a place to house those citizens, who chose not follow the social norms of society, and used a very

What is Freedom; does it really mean to be “free?” According to several dictionaries, freedom is described as being free of confinement or physical restraint. The United States of America is one of the freest countries in the world. Freedom isn’t just prone, though. Millions fought and perished for our rights and delivered us the freedom that citizens of the United States possess now. It is truly sublime to have these rights, is it not? Having human rights that enable us to do whatever we prefer is enlightening, yes? Ah, but is that what we actually maintain? We accomplished the aspect of freedom, but we are never really “free” until everyone is on the identical page.

What do I mean by this? Well, firstly I need to be entirely clear about what I mean by freedom. The Oxford English Dictionary defines freedom as “the state or fact of being free from servitude, constraint, inhibition, etc.; liberty.” This is true; however, any reasonable person can determine that that does not even begin to cover what “freedom” really means. There is emotional value in the word that simply cannot be captured by such a clinical definition. When I say freedom, what I really mean is the reasonable ability to make choices about one’s own actions and one’s own life. This does not have to be free from consequence, but it has to be a reasonable possibility on a de facto level.

Oppression is commonly defined as a prolonged unjust treatment or control. It's where one group dominates another or when one team has unfair advantages and power over another. We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality. Because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed. This oppression happens because of the inequalities of the system that assists the upper classes at the price of lower levels. Most of these individuals are minorities like myself are in the lower class which are also communities of color. Minorities will not benefit from these systems if those privileged keep making the rules. The social class is set up in a way where it's impossible or challenging to climb the social ladder through exploitation in our institutions.We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed as I experienced

The Meaning of Freedom Freedom as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary; the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action (Merriam-Webster, 1883). We all make choices so that would mean we all have freedom or so one would think. If we all truly have freedom then we should be allowed to do what we want, where we want, and how we want, however; that would lead to chaos. Just because we have freedom does not mean that we run around going crazy. That is where laws come in, they prevent the chaos from destroying society and the freedoms that we enjoy.

In today's modern society prisons are seen as a dirty, old, and scary place where those who have committed crimes go to spend time depending on what crime they committed. The idea behind prisons is that no one will ever leave because of all the actions taken in order to avoid a prison break, but in actuality prisons are more easy to break out from than people think, due to the psychological aspect or how guards treat the inmates, food, and how big or small the prison may be.

When a person goes to prison, they have some of their rights taken away. This is part of the US corrections system. Unfortunately, as these prisoners are released and becoming free US citizens, their rights are not fully guaranteed. These rights are laid out in the UDHR, the US constitution, and are commonplace in the developed countries of the world. For America to not provide recently released prisoners with these same rights would constitute a violation.

After watching the 30 days in Jail with Morgan Spurlock, Ive came to a conclusion that the Jailing system is not working and should be constructed differently. First of, jail is so secluded and the inmates do not get to exposed to anything outside for a long period of time. They start to feel depressed and feel like this is the end of their lives. In the episode, they are trapped in this facility with no outside connection and just have yourself and a few friends to communicate with. If there was a way to have connection with the outside and give them more communications with different people, I feel like that would help. Another problem is that jail does not change the inmates for the better and they just leave them be and wait out their sentence.

In the United States of America, civilians who commit crimes against the law are placed in prison and are no longer granted the respect of society members. Although they are not walking the streets, prisoners are still supposed to be given human rights within the prison grounds. Many statistics and cases show that prisoners are being abused, where prisoner’s rights might as well be useless. Some Americans do not think twice about prisoners since the prisoners have broken the law; and at times are not aware of the surreal events and living environment prisoners go through each day. The life prisoners go through is hostile, and the rights that prisoners should receive are being ignored. This neglect leaves traumatic mental and physical states outside and inside the prison. While in prison, human rights are being ignored as prisoners are sexually assaulted by other inmates, prison guards are abusing convicts, and outside of prison, prisoners experience employment problems.

Today we accept that freedom is a basic right human right but what exactly is freedom. 1On one hand, there is physical freedom. People who are not imprisoned or enslaved are free. On the other hand, there is freedom as a the right to act, speak or think what you want. People cannot reach their full potential if they are not free in both senses of the word.

How do you define the word freedom? Have you ever asked yourself that question? If you were to grab the nearest dictionary (it’s probably on your shelf covered in dust) and turn to all the words that begin with 6th letter of the alphabet, somewhere in the midst of those pages you would find the word freedom. One of the definitions you would find when looking it up in the Miriam-Webster dictionary is: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous. Author Wayne Dyer says:

Enslavement in contemporary society is still ever-present and not in places that one would typically expect. Take for example* the Justice System in the developed nation of the United States, where inmates work for meagre salaries and produce items for for-profit businesses. Looking specifically at Louisiana State Penitentiary where the prison holds people serving time for such crimes as murder, rape and drug charges. the population is primarily made up of an African-American demographic and as a part of their punishment they are made to work on the plantations, the setting almost replicates slave plantations before the period of the civil war, in fact, many inmates may have descendants who were slaves during that period as they are working

Freedom has a large range of meaning. The encyclopedia Britannica defines freedom as “the quality or state of being free, and the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Britannica). In the American society there is a lot of emphasis on freedom, and the right to be free, but one must question to what extent we are truly “free”.

While many words throughout the English language can paint a vivid image or idea, the word freedom is perhaps one of the most ambiguous. “It is defined as the following: the fact of not being controlled by subject or fate; the power of self-determination attributed to will” (“Freedom”). Its definition cannot be simplified into one dimension, and its interpretation is completely contextual. The reason that the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary was given prior, was due to its broadness; making it a more well-suited definition to describe the concept of freedom. In analyzing freedom, similar words will be discussed, freedom’s characteristics described, and examples given, in order to illustrate the word and some of its many uses.