Tent City Prison Case Study

In Phoenix, Arizona there are more inmates then there are jail cells just as is the case with most other jails and places. Tent City makes a statement saying that the sheriff will find room no matter what to house convicted offenders. Inmates at Tent City range from drug possession to assault. Surviving in Tent City is harder then most have ever served as living conditions are harsh. When individuals are in many of the jails they only get 1 hour outside of their cells and spend 23 hours in their cells ("Lockdown: Tent City", 2010). At Tent City they get most of the day outside. Everything is organized by race in Tent City which helps the offenders control people and contraband according to the officers. Rule number one is stick with your own race. Even meal time is separated by race which is a constant battle for the officers. If inmates break the rules of their own race, punishment is swift and painful. These punishments

range from a “chin check” to death.

Care, custody, and control are the top duties of the officers especially with members of the special response team (SRT). Inmates are advised by one another to not do anything that would be disrespectful to the others in their tents which include getting their tent “tossed” because they say that officers like to turn them against one another ("Lockdown: Tent City", 2010). All of the inmates have jobs which bring new challenges for both the offenders and the officers.

Many of these same issues within Tent City can be seen in any jail, prison, or correctional facility. In each there is contraband, disgruntled offenders, deals for trade, and secrecy. In each situation, it must be controlled or must be shut down just as it was mentioned by the officers on the SRT team in Tent City ("Lockdown: Tent City", 2010). I don’t believe that the traditional set-up is better then Tent City and I don’t think that ideas or programs like Tent

City are a bad idea. There may be more ways to hide contraband in places like this; however, with experience officers are able to gain a lot of insight to such places and honestly it doesn’t matter where you house an offender, if they want to hide contraband they will find a way. The only thing I would change about a place like Tent City would be to give the officers more views of what is taking place and attempting at limiting such hiding places as much as possible. This could be created by harder surfaces for bedding and plastic see through tenting. I would also want to include more programming to address some of the reasons behind the crimes committed. I have learned a lot in our readings from Walker and from personal experience working in a half-way house about the need to address the entire offender. We can’t lock offenders up and “throw away the key” and these individuals can be good functional members of society, but they need the tools and the education to make change. Not all will, but significant differences can be made if the efforts and resources are given. These types of lockups may seem harsh to some, but jail, prison, and corrections are not meant to be comfortable or fun. They are meant to make a person never to want to go back. They are meant to teach offenders a lesson in hopes that they will not commit further crimes and America should make a statement stating that there will be room if you commit a crime.