Have you ever been a visitor in a Prison? If yes, how did you feel?

Yes,when i was little ...around 8-9 years,i was with my school in visit at jail(prison)...and i can tell you,i feel a cold in bones even now when i remember...well,wasn't a simple jail,was a comuniste one,and all this mixed with our ghid explination make it in my mind a apocaliptic imagine(8 years,eh??)..but fact is...i don't know if that was a good choice for our visit(short vacation)...and i wonder if my teachers was sane...

It sure was a strange experience. The jail in our city is a maximum security facility. It is old and fairly small. My roommate's boyfriend was doing time for driving offenses, yes in maximum security, go figure hey! They keep people in it that have short sentences of two years less a day and under.I was young and volunteered to go with her to visit a friend of her boyfriend's that was lonely. He was nice enough but the screening process to get in was intimidating and made me feel like I was the criminal. I know it has to be done, but the way it made me feel was demeaning and I never returned. I can only imagine what the inmate feels like. I think it is a crime in itself to put harden criminals in the same place as guys who have driven without a license or driven under the influence.

Believe it or not it was actually a field trip back in high school. I was afraid to go but curious at the same time. Once there as a visitor, it was scary for me, the place was cold but humid. Each of us saw the cells, how they live in jail, the cafeteria, the outside where criminals go to work out and such. It was scary, but we met a few inmates who were choosen specifically to tell us their story and why they were in jail, they told us the horrors that go on, and even told us to live better lives because they didn't want to see any of us in jail with them someday. It was an educational experience I will never forget.