Orient Road Jail

Today’s experience at the Orient Road Jail is pretty difficult to put into words, but was still an eye opener in regards to what goes on in our world. I can not even begin to imagine that there are about 200 arrests a day.

I learned a lot from this trip, and will use this information in my professional career. Major gave an excellent tour and was extremely informative about the entire process that an individual has to go through when they are arrested. I learned what becomes a public record; for example intake, everything on the cameras, and property.

I also learned the reasoning why they take all belongings, and jewelry; it can become a form of extortion. So to prevent all of that from happening, they remove it at booking. Once your information is put into the database, anyone can access it.

From the booking area we then moved into the pods. At first I was a little nervous in seeing the inmates in their jail cells. I was pretty much pre-programmed by movies and what I see on TV. It was very different from what is shown on TV and movies. I expected to see all the inmates starting fights and being disruptive, but it was nothing like that. They were walking around, some playing basketball, others cleaning; but I still felt a little awkward being in there.

We then moved into the lock down, where these inmates are given 2 hours of recreational time. It was hard for met o understand that these inmates are in there cells 22 hours at a time; but they are in there for a reason so it was easier to handle.

Lastly we saw where the individual watches all the surveillance cameras. This was another neat place to visit because you saw everything that was going on around the entire property.

Over all it was a great experience, and I learned a lot. In regards to budget cuts; I do not think there should be any in a facility like this. This is done to make out community safer, and I do not think that they should take away from that. I want to feel safe in my community and if that involves paying a little more in taxes then so be it, as long as it is used properly, and not taken advantage of.