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Thought-provoking article on Scandinavian vs. American prisons

where is gay buttsex more openly accepted?
 
That's interesting. I'll have to give it more though but overall my concern is where do you put the gangbangers.
 
Um, the answer to the question is obvious.

Don't see many Vattos or Crips in Scandifuckingnavia.
 
Really interesting article. At the same time I think it's a lot easier to do almost everything in Scandanavian countries because of the homogeneity.
 
I think it might work at some lighter correctional facilities but a lot of our convicts have no business interacting with the general public.
 
i think it's funny how defensive some americans get of a clearly broken system.
 
I think the brokenness lies more in an outdated criminal code and correspondent sentencing guidelines, rather than the actual means of incarceration. In other words I blame the legislature and the judiciary more than the prison system. Agree we have waaay to many folks in jail.
 
BillBrasky said:
I think it might work at some lighter correctional facilities but a lot of our convicts have no business interacting with the general public.
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most likely you are correct, but the article did touch on this a bit with the concept of "closed" vs. "open" prisons. No reason why a ton of our non-violent prisoners shouldn't be in a facility modeled after one of the "open" prisons.
 
TheTwinAndreBen said:
I think the brokenness lies more in an outdated criminal code and correspondent sentencing guidelines, rather than the actual means of incarceration. In other words I blame the legislature and the judiciary more than the prison system. Agree we have waaay to many folks in jail.
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I completely agree it's important that we consider the legislature and judiciary when considering the penal system here. I think a really interesting issue the article brings up is about the role of the correctional officer here and there. Here's it's like a guard who is interested in little but safety and security of himself, fellow guards, and inmates. There, that's half of the picture, with the other half heavily invested in actual rehabilitation.

It's absolutely comparing apples to oranges when you compare the prison populations, legislatures, and judiciaries of our two systems. It doesn't mean we can't learn from a system that is clearly working more efficiently and less expensive than ours.
 
Milhouse said:
Quote Originally Posted by Wakeforest22890 View Post
Really interesting article. At the same time I think it's a lot easier to do almost everything in Scandanavian countries because everyone is white...
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This is what it comes down to. A big part of the article is Scandinavian criminals look a lot like Scandinavian noncriminals, so the voters and politicians have a lot more empathy. Our criminal justice system (the argument goes) institutionalizes racism, and because the black criminals don't look like the white voters and politicians running the show, there's a lot less empathy. I'm sure plenty of posters will have a problem believing that concept - it's a lot more comfortable to tell yourself that our murderers are more dangerous than Sweden's murderers than it is to confront the legacy (and continuation) of racism.
 
That's not what Milhouse was saying.
 
In US prison, you only talk to people of your own race. Haven't you watched First Week In? Everyone is white in Scandinavian prison. No such rules, man.
 
pinochadeac said:
In US prison, you only talk to people of your own race. Haven't you watched First Week In? Everyone is white in Scandinavian prison. No such rules, man.
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prision officials often encourage or are at least are indifferent to this racism though. it doesn't have to be the way it is...

@ all: the concept of incarceration in this country is based on the puritianical belief that people who commit a crime need to get in touch with god, so the idea was to lock them away with a bible, bucket, and bedroll until they were better. didn't work then, still doesn't work now.
 
Dmcheat, have you read Bentham or Foucault on discipline/punishment/carceration?
 
no, should I? a quick google suggests both authors would be good reads. i had never heard of them tbh.
 
yes, well they're both challenging, especially foucault, but discipline and punish is a tremendous read. bentham's panopticon is the basis for the structural design of many prisons, hospitals, schools, etc.
 
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