If I had been given opportunity to bail out of these ridiculous charges, I would have exercised my right to a trial, and made the State prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. However, in real life, defendants court dates are passed and passed and eventually they break down and plea. In jail, there is absolutely nothing to do, contact with your family on the phone can cost thousands of dollars, and the jail provides no structure or activities to occupy your time, leaving thousands of inmates just sitting around talking about their cases, or engaging in violence against other inmates.

A Cell Phone photo of inside the day room of the jail

You may notice there is no books, TVs, newspapers, or other reading materials that are publicly available. The jail provides no reading material, or any material that an inmate may use constructively or productively during the day. Only reading material, sent to a particular inmate may be received. This is considered the inmates personal property and may not be offered for general use. Select inmates may receive playing cards though the commissary. Often this is the only activity an inmate has to participate in during the course of a regular day. The jail's lack of a stimulating environment is a key factor in why many inmates plea guilty to their charges. In traditional bail amount setting, the weaker the case is, the higher the bond amount is. This is to prevent the inmates release in pre-trial circumstances, and to encourage a plea.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrests approximately 60,000 inmates a year. For each arrest, the inmate is charged a per-diem fee of $20.00. During the course of a year, the Sheriff’s office earns approximately $1.1 million dollars. Over 66% of all inmates in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Pre-Trial detention center are incarcerated for minor offenses, such as petty theft, minor drug charges, shoplifting/retail theft, and domestic violence. The rest of the felon population is incarcerated for Drug charges.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office uses tactics to impose great mental stress and anguish on its inmates, by invoking some of the most restrictive policies than any other correctional institution in the United States. Many inmates either accept plea bargains or accept prison time merely to escape the torture of the Jacksonville Corrections Facilities. Here are some of the “amenities” that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Department of Corrections has to offer:

Here are some examples:
Inmates are housed 3 inmates to a cell, with approximately 5’ x 10’ living space. Inmates are “locked down” daily at 8:30 PM, until about 5 AM.

There is no television or radios available. The object of the system is to deprive you of as much stimulation possible, because many inmates are bored out of their minds, many resort to violence against other inmates.

There is hundreds of inmate confrontations that go unreported, and those who are caught fighting or engaging in other violent acts, are rarely disciplined. The State Attorney’s Office drops most cases involving inmate assault or battery charges.

Inmates are NOT allowed to receive photographs of any type from friends of family. While you are incarcerated, you are supposed to be concentrating on getting convicted and getting sentenced.

Medical attention sometimes requires outside intervention, immediate medical assistance is not available, and in many cases the remedies offered are simple and ineffective.

There is NO officer physically located in the dorm, should a fight occur, it takes 30 seconds or longer for a corrections officer to respond. Officers are separated by 2 layers of soundproof glass.

Once you have submitted to a plea, and have been sentenced to county time, there are some myths and fraudulent advertisements by the corrections department you should be aware of

1) Gain Time & Extra Gain Time: The inmate handbook (08/2005) suggests that one can earn extra gain time by signing up for community service. There is none. Community Service is provided by outside work crews at the Montgomery Correctional Center, and working in these assigned crews are mandatory, and no you do not receive any extra time off your sentence.

2) Work Release: The Community Corrections Division manages a program called “Work Furlough”. To be eligible, your case will be individually reviewed by the Work Release coordinator, Michelle Henderson. She has the sole discretion to either approve or disapprove an application for Work Release. If you are charged (or have ever been charged) with a drug offense, or any violent offense (including domestic battery) you are automatically disqualified. If you are “not guilty” or otherwise “deserving a second chance” in Ms. Henderson’s eyes, you might become eligible, but for all others, if they can make up a reason to deny you, they will.

3) Food Service: Want to know how the Sheriff’s office promotes commissary purchases? Make sure inmates are always hungry. Using low-budget/low-quality food products, you are fed minimal food from a rotational menu that never changes. Most of the time your last meal of the day is completed at 5pm, your next meal is not until 4am, nearly 11 hours. In the Pre-Trial detention facility, inmates are not provided any security for their commissary purchases, and many times your purchased food items or other purchases are stolen by other inmates who are indigent.

4) No Tracking of Inmate Request/Grievance forms: The only authorized method of communicating your concerns to jail officials, these forms offer no serial numbers, receiving officer signature, or any other device to confirm what you write will actually reach its destination. Want to get some answers? You need someone on the outside to do it for you.

5) If you are sentenced; if you are caught SLEEPING (even if you are not assigned to work) between 5AM and 6PM you can actually lose gain time or be brought up with additional criminal charges (Violation of Jailhouse Rules)