So I found this slideshow of a rather unusual prison over in Norway that seemed kind of interesting…
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/25/the_super_lux_super_max?page=0,0
Ok, so I guess the pictures just looked swanky, but the comment thread to follow – now that was an intriguing slice of cultural clashing that although I wouldn’t have really expected, I suppose sadly doesn’t really surprise me in the long run. The discussion is about the concepts of prisons themselves and underlying, what they’re actually intended to be used for. It started off with a handful of American comments about how our criminals would tear a place like this apart in two seconds … I suppose so as to boast that our thugs and murderers are much more vile and dangerous than anything that Norway could ever churn out!
Not exactly a bragging point, as far as I can imagine, but still…
In turn, Norwegians (I assume?) fired back that it’s really a problem with America’s prison systems in general and that if you look at the numbers, Norway actually has a ridiculously lower incarceration rate per capita – a mere 66 prisoners per 100,000 people, as opposed to 738 per 100,000 here in the US! Damn statistics and your factual insight…
I mean, it’s a common argument here that our judicial system is out of whack merely how we deal with simple drug use, but the bigger picture that I think is really telling is that while here prison is basically intended to be one’s punishment for their crimes, overseas in Norway they look at prison to be more of a rehabilitation system that aims to work out whatever problems these people are having so that eventually they can leave and be productive members of society again.
It’s very clear by reading some of the comments that a lot of Americans really look to our prison system as a type of revenge against people who do bad things in our society … but is it really in the public’s best interest to lock these people away and isolate them entirely for a period of time prior to welcoming them back? When you consider how many people in prisons today are repeat offenders (over 50%, according to one study I read), coupled with overpopulation and financial issues, maybe the lock ’em up and throw away the key angle isn’t really working for us.
Granted, I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be the victim of someone’s incredible spree of violence or hate towards his fellow man, but maybe this is where we stand up as a society to help these troubled men and women who up until now have just been clogs in the system the way prisons work in America today. While you may not be able to help everyone, I don’t see how trying to move prisons away from the criminal breeding grounds and towards a place for improvement could possibly hurt given where we stand today.
It’s a drastically different approach than what we’re used to today, but eventually you’ve got to take a step back and make drastic changes when it’s become painfully clear that our current system just isn’t working. Are we there yet???
(P.S. While I understand that the piece was originally published as a buzzworthy item depicting a luxurious life for the recent terrorist incident in Norway, however it’s been clearly noted multiple times that the dude doesn’t have a chance of getting sent here anyways. That’s not the angle I wanted to talk about here anyways – more so a generalization of how the two countries differ in their prison systems … but I just wanted to clarify that real quickly here before someone gets sidetracked on the terrorism angle that doesn’t really even apply here…)