Prisoners in Halden's maximum security prison Norway

[packman]

Despite the “nice” surroundings, their five-year recidivism rate (what percent of prisoners are re-incarcerated within five years) is 25%. The U.S. five-year recidivism rate is 55%.

Norway also has 1/10th the prisoners per capita as the U.S., which has 20% of the world’s prisoners despite only having 4% of the world’s population. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. We have the same number of prisoners as China and India combined. And 23% of those prisoners haven’t even been convicted of a crime, they’re in pre-trial detention.

[Elessar Zappa]

1. Our prisons are designed to be punitive.

Inmates often leave prison harder and more violent than when they came in. We really need to focus on rehabilitation like Norway does.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. When there is a profit motive to operate prisons....

seems like you need a judicial system that keeps the pipeline full.

[The Polack MSgt]

16. +++

The 1st priority is securing income.

I wish we still lived in a country where "your money or your life" was a threat, rather than the "G.O.P Public Health Strategy"

[2naSalit]

3. One of the ways...

That you can see what humanity looks like.

[keithbvadu2]

4. Netflix has a series about prisons around the world.

Netflix has a series about prisons around the world.

One Greenland prisoner was allowed to hunt with a loaded rifle because it is part of their culture.

[rubbersole]

5. Just imagine desantis being able to decide who belongs in prison.

[CanonRay]

6. Far, far nicer than my dorm room

or our family apartment. I would have commited a crime to go back there.

[Mr.Bill]

7. Some officials from the German correctional syatem

came to California to examine our correctional system because we have about the Same population as Germany.

They were shocked to find that we had more correctional officers than they had convicts.

[orangecrush]

8. "Land of the Free"

[Celerity]

9. Germany dwarfs California population wise. More than double (83.3 million v 40.2 million)

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/germany-population

Germany Population 2023

83,310,834


https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/california-population

California Population 2023

40,223,504


So

because we have about the Same population as Germany.

is factually untrue

[Mr.Bill]

10. Well, I guess I was incorrect,

but even those numbers would allow comparisons by simply multipying or dividing by two. I will admit I read that article many years ago (possibly before east and west Germany reunited) and I will definitely admit I'm 69 and the memory is not 100% what it used to be.

[Celerity]

11. all good!! cheers

[Mr.Bill]

12. Thanks.

[summer_in_TX]

13. Hadn't heard of Halden Prison so had to look it up.

The Wikipedia article was fascinating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halden_Prison

[brooklynite]

14. The notion of penitent rehabilitation goes back 200 years here...

Designed by John Haviland and opened on October 25, 1829, Eastern State is considered to be the world's first true penitentiary. Eastern State's revolutionary system of incarceration, dubbed the "Pennsylvania system" or separate system, encouraged separate confinement as a form of rehabilitation. The warden was legally required to visit every inmate every day, and the overseers were mandated to see each inmate three times a day.

The Pennsylvania system was opposed contemporaneously by the Auburn system (also known as the New York system), which held that prisoners should be forced to work together in silence, and could be subjected to physical punishment (Sing Sing prison was an example of the Auburn system). Although the Auburn system was favored in the United States, Eastern State's radial floor plan and system of solitary confinement was the model for over 300 prisons worldwide. Critic and activist John Neal in 1841 expressed revulsion at the international reputation of "a nation that broke away from all its bands and fetters, only fifty or sixty years ago — overthrowing prisons, palaces, and thrones in her march toward universal emancipation, already renowned throughout the whole earth, for her prisons, her manacles, and her badges of servitude."

Originally, inmates were housed in cells that could only be accessed by entering through a small exercise yard attached to the back of the prison; only a small portal, just large enough to pass meals, opened onto the cell blocks. This design proved impractical, and in the middle of construction, cells were constructed that allowed prisoners to enter and leave the cell blocks through metal doors that were covered by a heavy wooden door to filter out noise. The halls were designed to have the feel of a church.

Some believe that the doors were small so prisoners would have a harder time getting out, minimizing an attack on an officer. Others have explained the small doors forced the prisoners to bow while entering their cell. This design is related to penance and ties to the religious inspiration of the prison. The cells were made of concrete with a single glass skylight, representing the "Eye of God", suggesting to the prisoners that God was always watching them.

Outside the cell was an individual area for exercise, enclosed by high walls so prisoners could not communicate. Exercise time for each prisoner was synchronized so no two prisoners next to each other would be out at the same time. Prisoners were allowed to garden and even keep pets in their exercise yards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_State_Penitentiary#History

[pansypoo53219]

15. i was w/ 5 danes a few years ago + they were shocked to see prisoners cleaning the sides of the

freeway + my danish epal talked about their system + sent pics. civilized.