Editorial
Do Celebrities get Special Treatment in Jail?
Amirah Abualeez
Robert
Downy Jr, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and many other
celebrities have served time in jail due to things such as drunk driving or
drug possession. It is not unusual to hear that a famous person has spent time in
jail, and then got out the next day. Many people start questioning the justice
system and accuse it of giving special treatment to celebrities and people in
high positions. In Pitkin County, Colorado, inmates are comfortable with a gym,
a dayroom, and balanced meals. When people celebrities read this, they automatically
assume that Charlie Sheen spends time in this jail because it is “comfortable”.
The reality is that, there are many inmates in that jail who are not. When it
comes to the justice system, the fancy and expensive attorneys cannot do much
when it comes to the actual jail stay. Celebrities do in fact get special
treatment, but special does not necessarily mean better.
To
begin, it is crucial to distinguish between a jail and a prison. A jail is
usually an open space where the inmates have activities and can interact with
one another. A prison is a closed off cell and the inmate has little
interaction with others. Prisons are usually for more serious crimes such as
murder and jails are for less serious crimes such as drunk driving, which is
where most of these celebrities fall into. Steve Whitmore of the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department states, “So if celebrities seem to have it easy in
jail, it's partly because the jail system is intended for nonviolent offenders
-- and celebrities usually fall into that class”. In a jail, it is the guard’s
jobs to reassure the prisoner’s safety. In the case of celebrities, there is a
very large chance that they could be harassed or even physically abused by
other prisoners. That is the reason that many celebrities end up having their
own cell isolated away from the rest of the prison, they are called “keepaways”.
When people look at one side of the story, they automatically assume that the
reason celebrities get their own cells is because they are being wrongfully
favored. In reality, these celebrities are constantly bombarded by the media
and do not get more privileges than many other people. Although some
celebrities get less time than they should, that is not a generalization that
can be made on all of them. Although Lindsay Lohan spent about 84 minutes in
jail in 2007, Robert Mitchum served his full sentence of 60 days, Robert Downy
Jr. and Lil Wayne spent a year in jail, and T.I. spent 10 months in jail. It is
so often that the experiences of certain celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan are
taken and then placed on other stars that had completely different experiences,
thus altering the views of society on the subject.
Today,
there are about 2.4 million people held in jails in the United States. Yet out
of those 2.4 million, it is only the incarcerated celebrities that attract
attention. Because of their lavish and upscale lifestyles, these celebrities
must also get lavish and upscale jail treatment, right? The answer is no. It is
generally assumed that these celebrities get special treatment because stories
like Lindsay Lohan’s infamous 84 minutes of Paris Hiltons 82 minutes in jail
surface the internet. The matter of the fact is that these celebrities do not
represent what actually happens to celebrities in jail. The “special”
privileges that they receive are not a matter of favoritism; they are a matter
of safety. The justice system will target anyone who has done wrongful acts, no
matter the size of their bank account. At the end of the day, jail is jail. These
celebrities will end up sleeping in the same bed that any other prisoner sleeps
in and they will eat the same food that any other prisoner will eat. With such
a growing media empire, it is vital to understand the entire picture and not
place generalizations on an entire group of people.
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