We all need to be aware of the present inhuman treatment of inmates at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail. But first, please understand that 80 percent of the inmates incarcerated in jails and prisons in the United States are not violent offenders. For at least two nights in a row, my friend has been forced to sleep with 10 men in a one-bedroom cell.
If we are in hopes of not creating hateful, violent monsters upon their release, how can we treat them so callously and with such wanton disregard and disrespect? As the legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin recently said: People reacted to Michael Vick with more outrage than when the athletes beat and abuse their wives.
Does anyone else out there see something wrong with this picture?
Julie L. Taggart
Bountiful