I've been to jail for awhile, it really is like this. On top of that, you are told almost nothing about how to make bail, what's going on, etc, and also congratulations, now everyone looks down on you even if you are proven innocent, especially the people inside the system (judges, lawyers, etc.)
Indeed. "Well, I would never have been so stupid as to get arrested!" is the attitude. It's a hueristic based on false assumptions about the system set mainly by the media, which is entirely, supremely false. It would be amazing for a story, any story, to take place in a realistic justice system where the meat grinder is on glorious display. (Public defenders would be good people to interview on this; maybe some ex-LEOs disenchanted with the system)
