so i was watching a documentary about norways prison system its a type of restorative justice , basically a liberal approach too a prison system. the prisoners live in their own houses on a secluded island , have greatly reduced sentences , grow their own food , work for 10$ a day , and have no fear of getting raped in the shower , because they use their own shower. the percentage of re-offences for norway vs the united states is appalling us-67.5% norway-20% contrary to Americas prison system where 24 inmates are crowded into single cells living behind metal bars on steel bunks sharing single showers and toilets , you visit a yard twice a week for an hour , and the rest of the time you are held to a clock , eating , sleeping , and going fucking crazy. because of the bleak conditions they live in , lack of supervision or outlets for their energy, or prior involvement to gangs , the prison becomes a life threatening , scary , hostile situation where an inmate can be stabbed to death with a makeshift concrete , metal , or plastic shank. in norway , you dont have these things. the maximum sentence in norway is 21 years. im not saying that its ok for double murderers , who usually do get the max sentence , but i am saying maybe the U.S should take a different approach to the way they do this dangerous hotbox they call a prison system. i mean , we do have the most people in incarceration in the world , most of them for minor drug charges. one thing that always gets on my nerves is drug addicts , you know how Portugal cut drug addiction in half? they chose to decriminalize drugs and treated addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal offence. you slap a crack addict on the hand and send them back to the street with no money and expect them to pursue the straight and narrow? i mean come on. when you treat convicts like they are human beings and that they can be better than their past many of them can and will work to better themselves what do you think?
I couldn't agree more with you that our imprisonment system is fucked up. I'm just not sure on how to change it. Norways system seems good, a lot better than ours. I just can't see our government changing. They're making a lot of money off of these prisoners. Our system brings in a lot of money.
america is so hard ass on tradition and making money , i hardly even see this topic come up on popular media , so i highly doubt much of anything will change unless we have some sort of prison massacre (again) and even then i dont see much happening.
That is not a liberal system. That is a conservative system. Most people dont understand liberal vs. Conservative it seems. Liberals dont trust people so they want the government to have money and power Conservatives dont trust goverbment so they want people to have money and power. Even the republican party in america is discustingly liberal. Some may argue the its "traditional" versus "new age" but thats bs Even of thats true then the definition still fits since traditional american values are anarchist in nature. hence why we have a constitution. Oddly enough pro abortion is a conservative view Sent from my LG-E739 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Also i agree with you op. Treat people like animals and they act like animals. Sent from my LG-E739 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Liberal and Conservative can mean different things in different places. Though what is Conservative fluctuates more. I would think of Norway's system as being pretty Liberal but for them it could be Conservative. At one point the prison system setup could have been really liberal and now it could be really conservative. Liberals want change by empowering the government to make those changes for the public good. You can think of Socialism for this. Conservatives want things to stay the same and dont want the government involved in making any changes to society. Can think of Capitalism and free markets and Adam Smith Invisible Hand. All that jazz. Though I recognize those examples are economic and not political systems but good enough.
my understanding of liberals is so different. i thought liberals were all about equality and shit. i dont know much about their stance in how much the government should be in peoples lives or whatever , but i know they are pro gay and pro choice and pro equality , and its weird how people talk so much shit about liberals , they seem fine too me.
WTF man, you are smoking something that isn't right for your head. Santa's bringing you a dictionary and a set of encyclopedias next year. By the way, Norway is one of the most socialist countries in the world. Since the prison system is run by the government, I think it's more than safe to say it isn't terribly conservative. Seriously Yuri, I like you dude, but you need to do some learning, brother.
And Renee; great thread. The prison system in the US is a major problem, and it's gotten much worse than it used to be. Sadly, there aren't many things that the US does best anymore. It would do us some good to swallow our pride and emulate a few other countries when it comes to particular policies.
most of them private run by the CCA , ever since prison became for profit the rate of inmates rose for some weirdddd reasonnnnnn $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
In order to change the prison system we need to get rid of this idea that prison is for retribution. Prison, yes, is to punish but it is also supposed to be a place of rehabilitation more so than a place of punishment. You cannot rehabilitate everyone especially sex offenders but we need to give people treatment. Get to the root of the problems in people's lives that made them turn to crime. See if we can turn some of their criminal skills into marketable skills. We need to give prisoners things to do other than exercise and play ball. Give them jobs and if they are good give them electronic games to play like computer and console games. If someone is serving 20 years and has no college degree as part of his sentence maybe it should be that he gets one.
Why what your saying is liberal and conaervative have no real meaning in the first place. Its just another title givin to us by the elites to keep us devided Sent from my LG-E739 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
People divide themselves along all manner of fault lines. It's part of the human condition. A reasonable political system can address this problem. It's not all just titles given to us by elites, etc. It's real and we need to deal with it.
Forty winks. I disagree. No political system can deal with this. People chose to align. Sent from my LG-E739 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
"Nah, man! That's for pussies! Prisons in the US are already practically a vacation! We need to take a hint from the Russian prisons if we really want to teach them a lesson!" The 'justice' system in the US is not about justice, or correction, or any of that. All about punishment, well, of course money plays a role too. It's a punishment system, people at least ought to have the balls to call it what it is. And the concept of it is so ingrained into the average American's mind, it will take a bit to reverse the way of thinking. A lot of Americans can easily ignore statistics like that. The punishment system, it's not about science, it's not about facts, it's not about results. I think laziness may play a role, easy to chant "lock 'em up and throw away the key!" (though there are a few I think deserve such) And maybe, a way to appease sadism, while still painting another in the bad light. After all, what's so wrong about wanting to punish a criminal? We're born into it, trained into it, and grow calloused by it. It's no wonder that so many can't even see that there's something wrong.