GlobalPost:
OSLO, Norway -- The first time I went to prison, it was to an idyllic place with lush woodland, bright-colored houses and the waters of the Oslo fjord sparkling in the summer sun.
Norway | Penal System | Prison Rehabilitation
MinnPost - In Norway, even murders and rapists have a shot at landing in 'open p...
Erwin James visits a high security prison in Norway | Society ...
Norwegian Prison Prepares Inmates For The Outside World | Inside ...
Norway unveils first ecological prison | Green Business | Reuters
A Life Sentence: Norway's Sustainable Prison : Chelsea Green
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My Grandfather and all his brothers and only sister emigrated from Norway. Does that give me the right to move back?
We lock them up and make them meaner and allow them to learn how to be worse from the even more hardened criminals we lock them up with. Kind like a big old modern Charles Dickens saga is our system.
It seems like in the US, we put people in jail for every little thing, and want extremely long sentences for everyone, to teach them a lesson. Feelings of revenge factor into everything, and families want what they consider justice, not what the law considers justice.
But we also have a culture and society based on greed, not community. Theirs is the opposite, so maybe that makes it more possible for these garden-style prisons to exist. Lack of jobs and good education causes a lot of people to commit crimes for easy money, and commit other crimes in their pursuit of that. And our wealthy commit crimes because they are not happy with their multi-million-dollar salaries as it is. There is a high level of frustration amongst all Americans, I believe, because our country does not support us as a human race.
The "Every man for himself" national motto causes us to be insensitive to others and selfish. That affects many parts of our environment, including crime.
WSJ/Murdoch: Dumb it Down Mr. President!
We must NEVER forget this!
What do you think of the Murdoch Rag - WSJ?
You know the WSJ:"Dumb it Down Mr. President!"
Is that why Murdoch is what he is?
Has he dumbed this nation down enough?
I guess not!
Mr. President: Dumb it Down!
America does not even rank in the top 25 for worldwide education!
Wonder why fox is # 1? We have the dumb down nation -
USA not even in top 25 for world ranking in education-
KISS rule- Bush Style-
Town Hall Protesters-
“I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK"
DUMB DOWN as WSJ/Murdoch requested President Obama to do?
I have never understood why prisons do not setup gardens so they can grow their own food, have animals for meat etc. The nonviolent criminals should be working to help improve the state they are convicted in and education should be ongoing in the prison for all of the inmates. If they were kept busy in prison it would give them less time to sit around or learn how to become better criminals. Lifting weights and working out is good, but should not be their only past-time. We spend a fortune daily on each and every inmate yet they are rarely given the tools to return to society and be productive.
There are a few where they grow their own food in the USA.
They should serve only vegan food in jail. :)
They should only serve what is cheap and gives the most nutrition for the tax payers dollar. I am not saying feed them junk but Vegan food is way too expensive for the most part even for me.
I read the comments, and am heartened by the responses. There is hope yet it would seem.
Thanks HP. I will looking to this as a possible retirement option.
lol
In a typical year, they will have about a dozen murders, period. The population is very small, less than five million, but extrapolating to the number of murders that would equal in the U.S.A., it comes out to about 800 for an entire year. It has been reported that America actually had about 17,000 murders in 2008, and about 1.4 million violent crimes.
Details are important. The oil industry is state-run ( aka socialist), so the profits go for the benefit of the people, not to the CEO and board of directors of Exxon. However, very few other businesses are socialised. The government has no national debt, and has a huge nest egg for the future bundled away. They have had socialised medicine since before World War II, and pollution is considered a crime against society. Even though they have more oil than they could possibly use, they are investing big-time in offshore windfarms, for the purpose of shipping electricity to the rest of Europe. They already export hydro-generated electricity, but they want to use their huge monetary surplus to develop even more alternative energy sources.
Norway manufactures an Electric Vehicle for city use, the Th!nk, something our country of over 300 million still hasn't been able to do.
It is important to remember when reflecting about the Peace Prize being awarded to Obama, that the Norwegians are not like us. To them it makes perfect sense to give this man the prize.
question: how do they treat mental illness. and mental patients............i assume that they are not thrown in the prisons. have they ever suffered under slavery or occupation.......even during WWII?
How many different nationalitites make up these 5 countries.....................how much fear do
their citizens live with every day..........yeah that darn old socialism is bad for ya..............so sayeth the capitalist limpuglicans
Nice try but this doesn't come close to telling the entire story. As someone that has had the pleasure to live and work abroad for some 18+ years - I have experienced firsthand what is only a half truth here.
Imagine a country where there is no capital punishment for any type of crime and the way to reform a human is by example and education. Criminals, murderers and rapists leave prison more willing and able to deal with life then most average Norwegians. Norway's standard of living is the highest in every respect, their concern and respect for the environment is beyond description, their university educational system is one of the highest and free. Full human rights are as natural to a Norwegian as breathing (that includes homosexuals - marriage and adoption) and more or less about 80% of the population like most of these northern European countries do NOT believe in god.
If it sounds like it's all too good to be true ... http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/22/norway-a-deleted-scene-from-michael-moores-sicko/
According to the a UN report for 2009 ... Norway was ranked as the best place to live on planet earth: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/
After World War II, some of the absolute worst of the SS and Gestapo were put to death. As in Israel, the death penalty may be rare, but it does get used occasionally.
Trying to work with your statement. Failing.
World War II - 1940s
This morning - 2009.
It has its downsides, though: $10-15 for a .5L of beer, or probably worse now with the fall of the dollar. Even Sweden isn't that bad.
If things get any worse here,I'm going to to up there a Rob me a Norwegian Bank or two!
I might join you. Just be careful not to commit a violent crime - they take a very dim view of that. They also have a zero tolerance policy for drunk driving; any alcohol detected means one year in jail.
Police brutality, like what happened to Rodney King, is practically unheard of. Last time I checked, it takes ten years to become a full fledged policeman in Norway, as opposed to a few weeks most places in the U.S.A. By comparison, our police are little more than civilians with attitude and a license to carry a gun in public.
lol
me 3
Huffpo: If you're not going to show the full story here, don't link to a sentence and then we have to click and WAIT on another and another. Good Grief....have some respect for our time if you want us to come back.
The key question for whether this is a good thing or not is surely what are the respective recidivism rates for this style of prison compared to others and that question is not addressed.
Various cultural factors will influence rates of crime and incarceration; the percentage of recidivists, though that also will be influenced by other factors, is, even so, a more useful method for comparing the effectiveness of different systems.
That was my first thought. If this kind of prison has a lower recidivism rate, then I'm all for it. The system in the U. S. sure doesn't work.
One first needs to understand that the level of violent crime is so low that it is hardly a problem. Recidivism for something that is exceedingly rare is not the most important statistic.
Thus one could say that the key question becomes, what is the level of violent crime, and why, not what is the level of recidivism.
Americans accept crime as a part of their daily routine. In my host country there is almost no violent crime. Little crime of any kind. Although we are poor by western standards, we have almost no rape or murder, street crime, robbery, burgarly are rare. I have no idea what the recidivism rate is, probably low, since one look at a Moldova prison will make anyone walk the straight and narrow.
If one must go to jail Norway sounds like the best place to do it.
Yes, you will come out of jail a rehabilitated citizen, part of society, not one of "them" who "we" must defend ourselves against.
Sounds sensible and civilized to me.
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First Posted: 10-19-09 02:03 PM | Updated: 10-19-09 02:07 PM