Field Trip: Hillsborough County Jail

"Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?"
--Bob Marley

On Tuesday my class visited the Hillsborough County Jail. Upon entering the jail we were told to not bring anything that could be considered a weapon into the point of no return. We all emptied our keys and left behind our cell phones to begin the tour of the jail. I found it curious that the officers just took our word that no one was carrying anything that could be considered dangerous and let us all pass by the metal detector that was in front of the door that we entered.

The control room seemed very advanced and the camera footage was cycling through on multiple televisions. This is when I first realized that most of that footage could be available as public records. I asked the officer if there had been any escapes at the prison. Expecting a definite NO! I was surprised to find that two people had escaped the facility but were eventually recaptured. Everyone seemed stunned when viewing a prisoner up close. I had much sympathy for the girls in my class because I can't imagine how being the "eye candy" to these people must have felt.

After viewing the pods and areas where the prisoners mingle convinced me that I never want to be in jail/prison ever! The small room would drive me insane, that's why it wasn't surprising to hear that some of the inmates had done some pretty graphic things to themselves. I now know why all camera footage of jails and prisons have no sound. The echo in any room in the facility would cause so much noise to bounce back and forth that you would not be able to understand anything. I can't even begin to imagine a day for the prisoners or the officers in that room for the "crazies." There was literally a small entry at the foot of the door to feed the inmates because some of them were so bad they weren’t even let out but maybe an hour a day or less.

Booking was our last stop where we viewed all of the people who had been arrested within 24 hours. We were told to be silent as we walked past the obvious stare downs from the new inmates. Before we left we were lectured on what information we were able to collect from the prison (the only things unavailable were social security numbers and witness names). Overall, very educating and the experience motivated me to be a perfect law abiding citizen.