Friday, June 27, 2008

New local websites explain "what to expect from jail"

The group Jailmedia has put up several new websites have gone up that include firsthand accounts about various aspects of jail life in Texas' largest county jails:

Why not Austin or El Paso, one wonders? Perhaps down the line. The goal of the websites are to "help the potential inmate or their family and loved ones know what to expect from jail." This seems like an interesting and useful project if it's done consistently and they keep the sites up.


Jennifer said...


I love how they make it sound like summer camp.

Anonymous said...

What's really shameful is the fact that someone felt the need to create an insiders guide to the jail system. I do not think that that people are intent to committing crimes as I believe the legislature has created so many rules and laws to entrap more persons in their wonderful company. Soon, I hope, we can get rid of this whole "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" thing and just move on into the Huntsville Hilton at birth...

Anonymous said...

It's a lame attempt to sell some targeted advertising to bail bondsmen and lawyers. What they did was scan Yahoo's list of top search terms and discovered there are 10k requests per day for "jail."

They bought a few domain names, threw up some basic HTML, minimal and useless information and started selling ads.

Scum bags profiting off the misfortunes of others in the worst way.

No offense to you, Grits.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the information is pretty useless.

Information on how to stay out of jail would be more helpful.

Also, everyone would be better served with information about how to get a court appointed attorney to do their job.

Anonymous said...

Yep... I agree. Many people are incarcerated because they could not afford a good attorney. And... many people mistakenly believe that their court appointed attorney is actually going to help them stay out of jail. Wrong! They usually get you to plea to some thing, so they can get on back to the paying clients. If more people would demand their rights to a jury trial instead of preparing for prison, it would change the way the system currently operates. Justice exist for the people who can afford it.
I don't think any web site can realistically prepare you for prison.

Anonymous said...

Anyone with a court appointed attorney and demanding a jury trial had better be prepared for a long wait.

If you can make bond it is not so bad. If you're in jail, the two year wait can be overwhelming. Especially when they offer you a plea for "time served" and a long probation with some distant hope of quashing the charge.

What they don't tell you is the impact of a criminal record on your future career prospects. The deck is completely stacked in favor of the prosecution, if you are innocent, tough!

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can be an 'extra' in a Discovery Channel program. Seems to be the latest in a series of irritations Dallas County commissioners are yammering about. See today's DMN.