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they are in Norway and they actually work to rehabilitate people. Imagine that.
http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1989083_2144218,00.html
Prison systems around the world are generally predicated on a two-step system: Punish the crimes, rehabilitate the offender. Some countries like the U.S. tend to focus on the punishment. But Norway is a shining example of what can happen when the focus is put on the rehabilitation.
In Norway, there is no death penalty and the maximum sentence is 21 years, meaning that every prisoner will someday be released. Because of that, Norwegian Correctional Services design and run their prisons to help inmates grow, or at least not diminish, as people so that they might effectively rejoin society after their release.
"In the law, being sent to prison is nothing to do with putting you in a terrible prison to make you suffer," Bastøy Prison governor Arne Nilsen told the Guardian. "The punishment is that you lose your freedom. If we treat people like animals when they are in prison they are likely to behave like animals. Here we pay attention to you as human beings."
Located on Bastøy Island about 46 miles south of Oslo, Bastøy Prison is a prime example of this ethos. Cells have televisions, computers, showers and toilets. Prisoners have access to a variety of classes in general education and specific skill-training. Though the inmates are counted several times a day, they're given relative freedom — they work in stables, bike repair shops, timber mills or grow crops. There's even a prison band that performs regularly and was given permission one year to attend a ZZ Top concert.
In Norway, there is no death penalty and the maximum sentence is 21 years, meaning that every prisoner will someday be released. Because of that, Norwegian Correctional Services design and run their prisons to help inmates grow, or at least not diminish, as people so that they might effectively rejoin society after their release.
"In the law, being sent to prison is nothing to do with putting you in a terrible prison to make you suffer," Bastøy Prison governor Arne Nilsen told the Guardian. "The punishment is that you lose your freedom. If we treat people like animals when they are in prison they are likely to behave like animals. Here we pay attention to you as human beings."
Located on Bastøy Island about 46 miles south of Oslo, Bastøy Prison is a prime example of this ethos. Cells have televisions, computers, showers and toilets. Prisoners have access to a variety of classes in general education and specific skill-training. Though the inmates are counted several times a day, they're given relative freedom — they work in stables, bike repair shops, timber mills or grow crops. There's even a prison band that performs regularly and was given permission one year to attend a ZZ Top concert.
http://mic.com/articles/81233/norway-treats-its-inmates-like-people-the-result-is-a-system-america-can-only-dream-of
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