Elysian Shadows

Apparently Norway has taken' a new approach towards on dealing with their nation's convicts. I'll let both articles explain the rest in the URL's below.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/euro ... pen-prison

The Young Turks News coverage (fav. news group ^_^)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnY9Kxh2rP8

Seeing this sorta' makes me want to go to prison now.

Thoughts?

It will be VERY interesting to see how this goes. In some ways I do agree with it, Violence begets Violence. Many people who end up in prison aren't that well off in the head, and It can't be mentally healthy staying in a prison cell. It just sends a bad picture of life.

On the other side, innocents who end up in jail at least are given a somewhat humane treatment.

I'm all for this approach, I can't wait to see the numbers of repeat offenders after visiting such a prison.

The downside is that this has to be pretty dammed costly to setup, but whatever.

edit:
In retrospect, this only accounts for people already in prison. Due to punishment being so 'lax', there is a lot more incentive to try something to see if you can get away from it, and if you don't, well the punishment is not all that bad.

This will benefit a good majority of prisoners, but the question remains whether or not the benefits outweigh the risk.

I share both of your views and I really do want to see the outcome. It seems almost like some sort of little science fair project experiment Norway is conducting on these inmates. But, statistically speaking as quoted by Cenk Uygur approx 20% of all inmates who commit a crime in Norway are more than likely to commit a second offense whereas in the United States 50-60% of all offenders are more than likely to commit the offense. So, maybe this will be a good approach for Norway. I guess this is all speculation. But, assuming this does actually work maybe this can be a great example of what the United States should be doing for their prison system.