Your analyses are indeed perceptive and informative, and I welcome them.
However, listen to an old retired lawyer. STOP using "cages." It conveys the image of animals in real cages. This use of "jail" or "imprisonment" detracts from your textural validity. When I reach that word, I just stumble; it is frankly too pejorative, if that's possible.
People unconstitutionally locked up for the crime of being poor and unable to pay their fines for a previous arrest would probably beg to differ with you, Francis. There is no word pejorative enough to adequately describe the horrors of detention in a jail or prison. "Cages" conveys them sufficiently, but incompletely. Inmates are treated worse than animals, for no reason other than that the incarceration industry seems to specialize in hiring sadists; even zookeepers treat their charges more humanely than most jailers or prison guards do prisoners. If the harsh reality of Alec's use of the word "cages" disturbs you so much, try actually being held in one against your will with no guarantee you'll be released anytime soon no matter how innocent you are or benign your crime. "Cages" will begin to seem a little more realistic, I'd wager.
Alec
Your analyses are indeed perceptive and informative, and I welcome them.
However, listen to an old retired lawyer. STOP using "cages." It conveys the image of animals in real cages. This use of "jail" or "imprisonment" detracts from your textural validity. When I reach that word, I just stumble; it is frankly too pejorative, if that's possible.
Frank Clifford
People unconstitutionally locked up for the crime of being poor and unable to pay their fines for a previous arrest would probably beg to differ with you, Francis. There is no word pejorative enough to adequately describe the horrors of detention in a jail or prison. "Cages" conveys them sufficiently, but incompletely. Inmates are treated worse than animals, for no reason other than that the incarceration industry seems to specialize in hiring sadists; even zookeepers treat their charges more humanely than most jailers or prison guards do prisoners. If the harsh reality of Alec's use of the word "cages" disturbs you so much, try actually being held in one against your will with no guarantee you'll be released anytime soon no matter how innocent you are or benign your crime. "Cages" will begin to seem a little more realistic, I'd wager.