Deviance/ 30 Days

Today in class we watched the show 30 days. Also, we learned about the shocking facts that America has the most amount of people locked up. This fact kind of scares me. While watching the show though, and taking into account that all of the men that were in the prison were there because of drug related crimes or because they were being "deviant" in other ways, I formed a strong opinion. I think that depending on what the crime was, by locking those guys up and resulting to prison, isn't helping them to better themselves. By making them suffer, that's not doing anything to help their problem.If anything, I think it's making matters worse. For those with drug problems and addictions, when they are put in prison, that's like adding oil to the fire. They are going through terrible withdrawal and when they get out and can finally get their fix again, they may turn into an ever bigger drug addict because they are so withdrawn. While it is important to crack down on people for drugs because of the drug epidemic and the severity of drugs, I think we should be more concerned about bringing these problematic people to rehab facilities where they can actually get help instead of throwing them behind bars. Even though people won't change unless they really want to, it could at least be a more effective approach to the problem of putting these people in a prison where they don't belong. They belong either in rehab or an institution.