AFS Cinema
Offended by Poster
RECEIVED Fri., July 18, 2008
Dear Editor,
I just have to ask a question of the Austin Police Department. I had the unfortunate experience of visiting the Austin Police Department substation at Lamplight and Parmer Lane to obtain a copy of a police report for a stolen vehicle. While waiting in line, I perused the bulletin board in the police station across from the clerks' windows. There in the bulletin board window, I see a poster with the words, "What exactly do you miss about prison?" across the bottom and above it various examples of prison life. For example, an orange jumpsuit, a prison cell, a fence with curled-up razor wire. The last example took me a minute to process … I had to do a double-take: A square that shows a lonely sudsy bar of soap lying on top of a drain. What can they possibly mean? That you have to take showers in prison? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to infer that they are advertising one of the conditions to look forward to in prison as being raped! It's bad enough that they do nothing to prevent the many rapes that go on in prisons, the spread of AIDS and other diseases. Now, they are going to use the idea of it in an ad to deter you from going to jail? Have they lost their minds?
I am offended by this poster and the Austin Police Department needs to remove it immediately from all locations.
I just have to ask a question of the Austin Police Department. I had the unfortunate experience of visiting the Austin Police Department substation at Lamplight and Parmer Lane to obtain a copy of a police report for a stolen vehicle. While waiting in line, I perused the bulletin board in the police station across from the clerks' windows. There in the bulletin board window, I see a poster with the words, "What exactly do you miss about prison?" across the bottom and above it various examples of prison life. For example, an orange jumpsuit, a prison cell, a fence with curled-up razor wire. The last example took me a minute to process … I had to do a double-take: A square that shows a lonely sudsy bar of soap lying on top of a drain. What can they possibly mean? That you have to take showers in prison? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to infer that they are advertising one of the conditions to look forward to in prison as being raped! It's bad enough that they do nothing to prevent the many rapes that go on in prisons, the spread of AIDS and other diseases. Now, they are going to use the idea of it in an ad to deter you from going to jail? Have they lost their minds?
I am offended by this poster and the Austin Police Department needs to remove it immediately from all locations.
Monica Shifflet
