’60 Days In’ Highlights Horrifying Conditions In America’s Jails

An unprecedented new TV reality show, “60 Days In,” sends seven volunteers into a county jail posing as inmates while having their experiences recorded and discussed with A&E producers. What they found is frightening and eye-opening.

One volunteer, Barbara, began the experiment with the assumption that jail must not be too bad, and that those imprisoned in that jail had an unfair advantage above the rest of us.

“My view on the criminal justice system here in the US is that they are not tough enough. Being a military wife, you know, my husband works so hard to earn those three square meals a day. He kind of gets the same benefits that the criminals do, in a way. I feel like it’s not very fair.”

Her assumption is a common one. Many people who have never been inside a jail or prison seem to have a picture of life inside as rather relaxing, with plenty of food, available health care, and guards to protect inmates and meet their needs. The reality was disturbing to many of the volunteers. At this point, it seems unlikely that all of them will be able to complete the program.

In just the season’s first four episodes, jail culture and the horrifying experiences of those trapped within it has become frighteningly real. Drugs are abundant in one of the men’s pods, violence is almost a daily routine in another.  One of the male volunteers is threatened with rape, and more than one is threatened with physical violence. One volunteer nearly leaves the program after only a few short days after witnessing a traumatic scene of violence between two inmates.

In the women’s pod, Barbara struggles with the feeling of being caged in such perpetually sedentary conditions. Tami has her belongings stolen in her first days, forcing her to confront an inmate who has verbally threatened her or be seen as an easy mark for the other inmates to bully.

There are no programs to help those gripped by substance abuse or to prepare inmates to become employed upon their release. Although jail time is meant to be a deterrent to reoffending, there is nothing offered to help them prevent doing so.

There is also no help for those suffering mental health issues, despite the fact that:

“Nearly a quarter of both State prisoners and jail inmates who had a mental health problem, compared to a fifth of those without, had served 3 or more prior incarcerations.”

The jail, located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is not alone in its myriad issues. Just six miles away in New Albany, Indiana, guards and inmates at the Floyd County jail report that the infrastructure of the very building in which inmates are housed is unsafe.

“Sheriff Frank Loop said the state he finds the jail in now goes back to when the structure on Hauss Square in New Albany was built in 1992. Despite pleas from judges and law enforcement at the time, the jail was built to house 134 inmates.

A few years later, beds were double-bunked to fit 234 inmates, and today the jail is over capacity at about 260 inmates.

Loop said that number has reached more than 300 in recent years, and the problem is the jail’s infrastructure isn’t growing with the inmate population.”

The county jail’s infrastructure issues have resulted in problematic and unsanitary conditions due to plumbing, in addition to other reasons that were also cited by the federal government when they sued the county and insisted the build that jail that currently stands, issues like:

“A lack of padded cells, a lack of adequate lighting, a lack of floor space […] we’re right back in the same areas that we were sued for originally.”

It isn’t just southern Indiana, either. Issues with unsafe, unsanitary, violent, and improperly managed jails and prisons are reported nationally. Inmate deaths while in custody of a jail or prison has increased consistently in recent years, but little seems to be done to address these issues.

If a show like “60 Days In” can do any good, hopefully it can show the country the deplorable conditions that inmates suffer and the ineffectiveness of our current system of incarceration in a way that inspires reform.

To watch A&E’s “60 Days In,” click here. To see the trailer, watch the video below:

Featured image screengrab via YouTube