Cook County Jail Reflection

Soc 310 Cook County Jail Reflection Paper Autumn 2009 Our visit to Cook County Jail was very stimulating to say the least. The community that the jail system is located in is primarily filled with Mexican Americans and seems to be very poor. I think that the jail is located there with no consideration of lowering property level due to the fact that it is already a poor neighborhood. I think that it further harms this community because the youth are exposed to jail system unnecessarily. I think that the jail system being placed in this community benefits the employees that work there, they don’t have the establishment in there community but can travel there and go back home to there possibly safer neighborhoods. I noticed a few disturbing things in the criminal court. This was my first time ever witnessing the court being set up with the audience behind a window; this in my opinion takes away from the entire feel of court. I noticed that every single employee in our court-judge, prosecutor, security guard, secretary were all white. While all the families in the waiting area were Mexican and African
From the time we walked in the door the security personnel spoke to us as if we were inmates and told us what to do instead of asking. This directly corresponded to our readings on theories of power, punishment, and control. I felt as if I was a criminal, when I asked the security guard a question he didn’t give me eye contact, he looked over my head and pointed. I also noticed that a lot of the employees seemed unhappy, one employee even swore. I think this has a great deal of how they treat the general public. I noticed that probably about 90% of the people in line to either go to court for themselves or support a family member were either Mexican American or African Americans-supporting the stereotypes of minorities being criminals, not considering there social