OPINION – In this special edition of the “No Filter Show” Co-host Paul Ford tells about his recent commitment by court order to Washington County’s Purgatory Correctional Facility. Co-host Grady Sinclair and three guests join him for this intimate talk on incarceration and the war on drugs.
“What’s the deal, jailbird?” Hit play: 
for answers and insights
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Very informative No Filter segment, Thanks.
So what can we as citizens do to attempt to curtail this rampant use of drugs? I’m glad Paul made it through with his dignity in check but what can average me do?
Not use drugs. Educate your kids about the dangers of drugs, provide a good home for them so they feel cared for and loved so they have less of a chance of joining gangs. teach them to use use common sense and stay away from people of questionable character. You can do this for yourself too.
@SIMONE,
If only it were that easy. I had a good home, good parents, graduated DARE and watched every very special episode of what Hollywood thinks passes for teenage life and I discovered drugs because it was a common past time among the people who didn’t judge.
Your child goes through hell in junior and high school… well at least those who fall short of social acceptance and even the cool kids have their diet pills and roids to keep up appearances but at smokers corner (every high school has one and your kid knows where it is) they didn’t judge me by my jocular ability or by my shoe brand and as long as I had a square to spare (cigarette to give) I was okay by them.
One day there was a pilgrimage on the city bus to a pad where people were smoking meth and lo and behold I had a new best thing ever.
I was 14. I didn’t get into rooms of Recovery until I was 24…. can you imagine how polarizing that decade was? And no dad didn’t drink and mommy didn’t need lite helpers and I didn’t join a gang I discovered mind altering substances and I liked them.
What did it take to actually stop?
I ran out of people who were willing to let me abuse them. No more couches to surf and I wasn’t welcome in my boyhood home so I ran out of options. It was death or drugs and I learned I wasn’t as willing to die as I thought I was and someone directed me to AA/NA and it helped me replace an addiction of drugs for one of Recovery…. and I used recovery for the first 5 years and it kept me dry and clean until it was all a show for other junkies and drunks who need a place to go for an hour instead of their dealers house or a bar.
I’m not saying AA/NA doesn’t work I’m saying it’s not a fix all and I needed to come to come to that understanding before any real CHANGE could happen.
The best thing anyone ever did for me was give me the dignity to fail and have to pick myself up again and then only help when it helped and didn’t give me an out.
Want to help? Once you know they are using….show them the Door and tell them to come back when they want to try being who they are capable of…not who they’re running from.
Mr. Ford should not have gone to jail. Shame on the corrupt court and judge. Jail should be for violent offenders only! No exceptions. Every judge needs to spend a week or so in jail every year that they act as a judge so they get the idea and feel the pain they are so callously causing for their fellow human beings. I also think something needs to be done to help the addict. Most (not all) but most drug users are not hardened criminals. If you fix the addiction you stop the crime. I do believe there are some truly bad people who need to be in jail. West valley police officer Cowley the little girl killer is one example. Most of the time jails are used as a cruel way to make money ( traffic fine any one?) or for the judge to show everybody who is boss. The more people they do that to the less respect I have for them and for the whole corrupt legal system. Be it know that the only reason I stand up when a judge enters a court room is because I am forced to. I have no respect for the person wearing the little black dress and playing with their little toy hammer. They need to buy a real hammer and go make an honest living with it.
I’m assuming your plea for probation during your last court appearance made the judge laugh. Have you learned from your mistakes? I didn’t think so.
HANDS UP… DON’T SHOOT!
Never spent time in jail in my life. Have seen friends and family be very poorly treated. One poster here is telling about going to jail for three days for a traffic fine. That makes me furious! The almighty state has no right extorting money from people that way. They are no different than kidnappers holding people for ransom. Jail should be for bad actors only no exceptions. Put the judge and the cops in jail. Problem solved.
No filter: inside purgatory……..thanks for sharing
Here is a problem that has made it easy for all criminals. The prision system used to be that if someone was in prision they had to work. Utah state prision had all kinds of jobs for the inmates to farm grow food and many others. So why is the tax payer paying for them to sit in there? why are we letting them sit there and take life easy? We all have to work to make a living so why cant they? We should make them pay there way not the tax payers or the family. If the rules where Like they should be allot of these people would think twice before breaking the law and atleast they could pay there own way. This system has failed over and over. Crime is up because the penalties are not there to support the system. Thank you
Devstrike2 I invite you to spend some time in jail and see if that is taking life easy. You have no idea what you are talking about. Why do you want to see all this punishment heaped on the heads of everybody but you. Don’t tell me you don’t break laws. You do! There are so many laws that it is impossible not to break laws. In the for profit prisons what you are talking about does happen. The inmates do have to work hard for little or no pay. They are a source of free slave labor which is why these prisons are making a profit. That in turn creates a need for more free slave labor- I mean inmates so more things have to be against the law and more petty behaviors have to be turned into felonies. Some states- Arizona for example have not three but seven count them seven levels of felonies!
Everything is a go to jail felony. This is the prison industry in America. What a way to make a living. Throwing everyone in jail and then making them work like slaves to make you and your share holders rich! Oh and while you are at give them no food or medical care and make them live in filthy dangerous conditions.
That is the truth of what goes on in jails and prisons. Only truly bad actors deserve to be in jail and not the huge number of American people who are now in jails in this country.
Do you have any familiarity with the subject you are talking about? Have you ever had a family member or friend incarcerated? There are jobs, but they are prized and hard to get because the inmates can earn like 15 cents an hour or so and eventually make enough to buy a pop or candy bar for something like $5 each from the jail with the money on their books so that their life doesn’t suck quite so bad.
So I recently visited our jail here in southern Utah. And not bye choice I had a traffic ticket I didn’t take care of…totally my fault. Well I ended up being there for a few days and meeting a lot of young people. I am now 42 years old and have NEVER been in jail. So I wasnt sure what to except…. For the most part people are very nice but there were some crazys… I think the thing that bothered me most was how young these girls are and it just seemed like a slumber party to them. I sat back and just listened a lot to them talk . It was amazing how they all knew the same people and how they talked about o shes here on these charges and o he’s here for this….. It made me so sad to see that this is what are future is these young ppl talking about who sells what and about drug task force and about how o I am just here for 90 days thats just nothing… I was there for 3 days and let me just say there is no way 90 is just nothing. I have kids there’s no way I can not see my kids for 90 days. These girls make me so sad and mad at the same time they have kids and it’s just like a vacation for them..