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Western European prisons, Australian prisons, Japanese prisons and prisons in other civilized, well-developed, rich countries are much nicer to stay in than Ame

Western European prisons, Australian prisons, Japanese prisons and prisons in other civilized, well-developed, rich countries are much nicer to stay in than American prisons and still our criminal problem isn't nearly as large as yours. I'm not the least bit afraid of going to prison here. Still I don't break the law, for reasons better than fear of prison.

cobrausn 13y ago
On the subject of prison harshness I don't think holding up Japan as a model of care and compassion is a good idea (link is old but not much has changed, I hear). http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/08/world/prisons-in-japan-are-safe-but-harsh.html http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/08/world/prisons-in-japan-are...
vacri 13y ago
On youtube there's a tv show "Australia's Hardest Prison", a max-security prison in WA. In it the warden is seen saying (paraphrased) "we try to do rehabilitation here, and the people you read in the newspapers calling for longer sentence simply don't understand prisons". There is also a grey-haired American prisoner who has been in several prisons in several countries. He has the opportunity to return to the US for imprisonment there, and he refuses, wanting to finish his life sentence in Aus because "it's... humane". Then you can click on any of the "America's hardest prisons" videos and they're all about using fear to keep you in line, overcrowding, so on and so forth. There's no overriding philosophy of embetterment, or if there is, it's merely lip-service.