Sunday, May 2, 2010

Just wanted to post an article on humane prisons in Norway that I found very relevant with regards to our discussion last Wednesday. Some statistics in the article state that "Within two years of their release, 20% of Norway's prisoners end up back in jail. In the U.K. and the U.S., the figure hovers between 50% and 60%." Evidently one has to factor in that Norway has a much lower level of criminality compared to the UK and US, but still I think that the example of Norwegian prisons could support the position of an massive overhaul of the prison system in other countries.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.html#ixzz0mnjMsFCY

1 comment:

  1. This is a very interesting article, but I am not sure that this sort of treatment would be possible in our country. The extremely high amount of incarcerated individuals in this country would make it very expensive to try and build prisons like this one in Norway. At the same time, it cannot be a coincidence that by treating prisoners humanely, they are less likely to return to prison. You hear about prisoners in our country becoming hardened as a result of being locked away in our dreadful prisons, and by the time they are released many are so full of hate that they're destined to return. I think American prisons could take some things away from this prison in Norway. You don't have to give prisoners flat screens and mini-fridges in their rooms, but something like making the architecture seem more humane could do some good.
    One problem I have with this article is how it makes these murderers and rapists in Norway seem like functional/rational people that are able to use these perks responsibly, when the whole reason that they are in prison in the first place is because they were not able to function as rational members of society.

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