This paper explores the book

This paper explores the book, The Jail: Managing the Underclass in American Society, by John Irwin and goes into detail about jails in general and how they are filled with people known as “the rabble”. These people are offenders who have committed no crime or very petty crime and are viewed as socially offensive in society. This paper gives a summary of each chapter in the book. It discusses the “rabble”, who they are, how they are viewed by society, how people become arrested, how they feel during the arresting process, the booking process, how jail changes the way people think and act, and how jails are not actually helping the decreasing of crimes. Irwin argues a lot that the only goal of jails is to control and manage the underclass. In the end, it is concluded that offense seriousness, rather than offensiveness, was the major factor of serving time in jail and in being identified as a serious offender.