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What Is The Detrimental Nature Of The Prison System

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One of the greatest emphases that Victor Hugo enlightens in Les Miserables is the detrimental nature of the prison system. During the time Les Miserables was penned, a vast amount of issues plagued the prison system, and many of them are touched on in the novel. The prison system was structurally and functionally crumbling during the time of Les Miserables; from excessive punishment to skewed workforce, even the miserable living/working conditions for the convicts. Hugo emphasizes countless other issues throughout the novel, but these three are constantly referenced and expanded upon. The primary issue undermining the entire novel, excessive punishment, is the key reason as to why the prison system is the way it is. Throughout Les Miserables many of the convicts are subject to excessive punishment. Working in the galleys would not be acceptable in …show more content…

Javert has been tailing Jean Valjean ever since he left the galleys a free man. I found myself asking questions along the lines of “What does Javert do all day?” “Doesn’t this guy have anything else to do except chase a former convict all over France?” This frustrated me throughout the novel because instead of examining the problems with the prison system, we have people wasting years and lots of time and money pursing a convict that was unfairly sentenced in the first place for a petty crime, and ended up on “death row” for something that should have been a fine and maybe one year of jail time at the maximum. Javert sums this up in his dialogue with Valjean in the movie. “Now prisoner 24601, your time is up and your parole’s begun. You know what that means?” “Yes, it means I’m free.” “No. Follow to the letter your itinerary, this badge of shame you wear until you die. It warns that you’re a dangerous man.” (Les Miserables Movie-Musical). Javert has no clue that what he is working on is a total waste of

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