The Injustice of Restriction: My Reaction to Public Secrets

 During the year of 1993, the California Department of Corrections banned all media from its facilities.  This was a product of hardship and turmoil that the department had been under due to the media.  Their dark and dirty secrets were escaping to the public, and the public was not happy.  Instead of making improvements, the department closed its doors on all media which left the inmates without a voice and the public blind.  In Public Secrets, Sharon Daniel, gives a select group of these inmates a chance to speak out about their experiences.  Sam, a prisoner in the Central California Women's’ Facility, expressed her thoughts on the facility with this quote. “This is not a correctional facility, it’s a penal colony.”  This is one of many quotes that illustrate the lack of improvement in the correctional facilities.   Instead of serving time in facility where one could have a view of the outside world, whether it be from family or media, the prisoners view it as a “penal colony” exiled from the rest of the world.  The website supplies a great deal of other stories such as one about a woman dying because she was not given proper medical care or one that deals with women being randomly strip searched without probable cause.  Public Secrets shows the constant violation of rights that those women should be entitled to.  One might say that they deserve what is happening to them because they are criminals, but even prisoners have rights.  Just imagine that you had a family member facing these cruelties.  Many of the stories seem like cruel and unusual punishment which is prohibited under the Constitution, but no one is supposed to know about it.  The media should not be banned or restricted from the correctional facilities or prisons in the United States.  The media would hold the facilities accountable, and instead of taking the easy way out, the departments and facilities will be forced to make necessary improvements.