Denver criminal defense lawyer / yes prison really is that bad

Occasionally pop culture kind of makes prison out to be a lark. There's George Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development" playing softball in prison and chilling with arsonists. There's Avon Barksdale playing softball and running a drug operation for a few years after he gets busted. There's also the occasional story about some old guy with no money intentionally committing a crime so he'll have a warm place to sleep in the cold winter. However, as a Denver criminal defense lawyer, I feel I need to point out to my clients (if they don't understand already) that prison is really brutal. Here is a case in point:

Prosecutors said that the four inmate assailants used their fists, feet and padlocks attached to belts to beat Zuniga-Garcia to death in his cell, according to the Denver Post. The attackers, Jose Augustin Pluma, Juan Martin Ruelas, Mark Rosalez and Justin Hernandez are being indicted with second-degree murder, conspiracy and possession of contraband in prison.

Now obviously only the those who are convicted of the most serious crimes will do time in the Supermax Prison in Florence where this murder took place. Most Denver criminal defense lawyers will not try a federal case in their whole careers, let alone a case where the defendant is considered one of the most dangerous in the entire federal system. However, concerns about the living conditions across the federal prison system are rampant, from health care in California (which was recently ordered to reorganize its prisons and decrease the population by 30,000 inmates) to the concerns about sexual assault across the entire American penal system. All in all, even a very short prison sentence is probably worse for the average criminal defendant than a suspended sentence with a variety of service requirements and the like. If your Denver criminal defense lawyer can negotiate a non-penal sentence, that is a good thing.