In the US, Prison boils down to punishment and nothing else. People who did bad things are thrown into poorly maintained buildings to account for their wrongdoings. This is not working at all. Norway has a completely different approach to the prison system.
Since the 1990s, prisons in Norway have been pushed from the standard form of punishment to a new reintegration system where convicts have many opportunities to further themselves. Prisoners are offered college level classes, a stocked library, weekly visits from friends and family, paid work so they can have something to start off with when they get out. So far, this has worked extremely well compared to the prisons of the US. Harvard Politics says “Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20%. The U.S. has one of the highest: 76.6% of prisoners are rearrested within five years.”
Why does this work so well? Norway Grounds its idea on the fact that most crime is done because of lack of opportunity while The US has a fear based system where we believe if we make people fear going to prison then they wont do crime. This thinking has failed us.
A Prison "cell" In Halden Prison
Even though I believe that what Norway is doing is amazing, I don’t think it would work in the US. The only reason it works in Norway is because living conditions are so good that people won’t be driven to crime to get a degree. In the US college has a large price tag and we don’t do much to help our homeless. For this reason a progressive prison system would never work in the US. Why pay thousands of dollars for college when you could just commit voluntary manslaughter.
What do you think of this system?
Do you think it would work in the US?
Sources:
https://norwaytoday.info/culture/what-are-prisons-in-norway-like-really/
Replies
+7 Extra credit. Thanks Daniel! You could have replied more frequently.
I do not think that this would work in the United States because the United States is a much bigger country than Norway is. This sounds like something Joe Biden would come up with that would never work. Norway is not the same as the United States is.
I feel like this would work better in a different time period or even a country. I think we have to high of a rate of crime for it to work. It's not even that bad of a punishment seem like a hotel room. Once they get out they might do it again because, the punishment is not as harsh.
It for sure allows for a more mentally calming area. A person would be able to reflect on their actions but also still be capable of living a fairly normal life, just in lock down for a multitude of different years. Which is perfectly fine if the rooms end up being like any normal bedroom. This system would most likely not work in the US. Due to people wanting to take advantage of it simply to get a better place than what they have now, and how this would probably increase taxes over the years would be a pain for a lot of people.
I feel like this system may work in other countries, but due to the crime rates in the US, it wouldn't work. This system seems less like a punishment, and more like a temporary home. After someone gets out of this place, the person would most likely go back to what they did before because they know the punishment isn't even bad.
I feel this is a great idea and that the US should take notes you do not have to offer classes but having jobs making the cells more like a small room and stuff like that could really help people but until it happens this is just a great dream that should happen but probably will not at least in the near future
The reason this won't work in US is this country has one of the highest crime rates in the world and it is nothing to compare about. Putting jails like this would literally encourage some poeple to do crimes because this standarts are higher than most of the people in United States.
I personally do not think this would work in the united states at all there would be too many people doing crimes just to go to a jail like that. I think that system is very cool and could work in places with a lower poverty rate than us and could be helpful in another country.
I don't think it would work that well. If the us boasts about how nice our prison system is, homeless people would probably try to get there for better living conditions. The US isn't norway, bad people deserve bad things and I think our prison system executes that nicely.
If they are prisoners they don't need to have a special room that is all fancy. i feel like if we had nicer prisons wouldn't they want to commit a crime to be there especially if they have really poor living conditions. Maybe ours crime rate is higher for a different reason. Not because we don't have nice prison cells.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next