Why are jails referred to as the "shame of the criminal justice system"?

A jail is defined as a confinement facility for people held in lawful custody, that are under the jurisdiction of a local government. The purpose of jails is to receive and hold individuals that are waiting for trial, or to hold inmates that have already been sentenced.

In the United States, many of the different state´s jails are over capacity in their population. This is a direct consequence of the growth of delinquency in the country, having 1 over 200 citizens behind bars. The growth of jails has been referred to as the "shame of the criminal justice system" due to the poor conditions in which most of these jails are in. Also, the staff that works in these jails is underpaid and not properly trained for their job. This situation is a result of the low priority that the jail system has when it comes to distributing the local budget.

"choosing is refusing" means individuals face an opportunity cost with each decision they make. economists state that every decision involves trade-offs. opportunity cost is the least desirable alternative given up as a result of a decision.

the earth’s crust is broken into separate pieces called tectonic plates (fig. 7.14). recall that the crust is the solid, rocky, outer shell of the planet. it is composed of two distinctly different types of material: the less-dense continental crust and the more-dense oceanic crust. both types of crust rest atop solid, upper mantle material. the upper mantle, in turn, floats on a denser layer of lower mantle that is much like thick molten tar.

each tectonic plate is free-floating and can move independently. earthquakes and volcanoes are the direct result of the movement of tectonic plates at fault lines. the term fault is used to describe the boundary between tectonic plates. most of the earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific ocean basin—a pattern known as the “ring of fire”—are due to the movement of tectonic plates in this region. other observable results of short-term plate movement include the gradual widening of the great rift lakes in eastern africa and the rising of the himalayan mountain range. the motion of plates can be described in four general patterns:

collision: when two continental plates are shoved together

subduction: when one plate plunges beneath another (fig. 7.15)

spreading: when two plates are pushed apart (fig. 7.15)

transform faulting: when two plates slide past each other (fig. 7.15)