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Clearly our prison system in the US is terrible. Of course most other countries are even worse but you'd think we would be more civilized. It's also embarrassin

Clearly our prison system in the US is terrible. Of course most other countries are even worse but you'd think we would be more civilized. It's also embarrassing that the only person they were able to put in jail was a simple programmer.

grecy 10y ago
> Of course most other countries are even worse I've never understood why people say things like this. The USA is supposed to be a developed country, and supposed to be at or near the very best. What do you have to gain by comparing it to undeveloped countries that are clearly not in the same league? For example, you just said: Sure, my pro baseball team finishes bottom of the ladder every year, but it's clearly better than all the highschool teams out there. - I sure as hell hope so! Compare the USA to all the developed countries, aspire for better, and work towards improvement.
- HemanHeartYou 10y ago
  You've misinterpreted what he is saying. He's saying that for a developed country our prison system is bad, but he's also trying not to give the impression that it's worse than other countries, it would be bigoted to do so. This was an attempt at being humble.
ArkyBeagle 10y ago
I don't know if it's available any more but there was a series on The History Channel ( from back when it had, y'know, history on it ) called "The Big House" with Paul Sorvino narrating that covers how this came to be. I realized a massive high school being built in my (then) home town had an architecture based on prison design. Not only were prisons a political innovation, but they had a lot to do with how architecture developed.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  Have you more info on this? That is a pretty amazing observation. Did you mention it to anyone?
  - ArkyBeagle 10y ago
    I did now :)
- eonw 10y ago
  the high school i went to was of this design as well, very much like a prison. courtyard in the middle, everything was segmented and easy to lock down. very blocky and few external windows.
mietek 10y ago
> Of course most other countries are even worse Why do you think that?
coldtea 10y ago
>Of course most other countries are even worse but you'd think we would be more civilized. You'd be surprised. Most western countries, for example, are far better. And for all countries in general, including the most backwards ones, the overall system is quite better for their citizens, in the sense that the US is (by a large margin) the king of incarcerations. 4% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's inmates. Then there's those medieval ideas like the "death penalty" which almost all the modern world has abandoned.

grecy 10y ago

> Of course most other countries are even worse I've never understood why people say things like this. The USA is supposed to be a developed country, and supposed to be at or near the very best. What do you have to gain by comparing it to undeveloped countries that are clearly not in the same league? For example, you just said: Sure, my pro baseball team finishes bottom of the ladder every year, but it's clearly better than all the highschool teams out there. - I sure as hell hope so! Compare the USA to all the developed countries, aspire for better, and work towards improvement.

HemanHeartYou 10y ago
You've misinterpreted what he is saying. He's saying that for a developed country our prison system is bad, but he's also trying not to give the impression that it's worse than other countries, it would be bigoted to do so. This was an attempt at being humble.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

I don't know if it's available any more but there was a series on The History Channel ( from back when it had, y'know, history on it ) called "The Big House" with Paul Sorvino narrating that covers how this came to be. I realized a massive high school being built in my (then) home town had an architecture based on prison design. Not only were prisons a political innovation, but they had a lot to do with how architecture developed.

lostlogin 10y ago
Have you more info on this? That is a pretty amazing observation. Did you mention it to anyone?
- ArkyBeagle 10y ago
  I did now :)
eonw 10y ago
the high school i went to was of this design as well, very much like a prison. courtyard in the middle, everything was segmented and easy to lock down. very blocky and few external windows.

mietek 10y ago

> Of course most other countries are even worse Why do you think that?

coldtea 10y ago

>Of course most other countries are even worse but you'd think we would be more civilized. You'd be surprised. Most western countries, for example, are far better. And for all countries in general, including the most backwards ones, the overall system is quite better for their citizens, in the sense that the US is (by a large margin) the king of incarcerations. 4% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's inmates. Then there's those medieval ideas like the "death penalty" which almost all the modern world has abandoned.