Norway and Sweden have more humane criminal justice systems

The U.S. has a very harsh (and ineffective) criminal justice system, compared to other modern nations.  Here is some information about Norway and Sweden that I saved from a few years ago:

Norway’s prisons are much better than the U.S.’s.  Instead of dehumanizing their inmates, they help prisoners retain their human dignity, so they will become better able to reenter society.  http://www.alternet.org/drugs/michael-moore-norway-prison-tony-papa-sentence?akid=13995.2186.s12ezx&rd=1&src=newsletter1051042&t=10

In 2013 Sweden acted sensibly to reduce prison populations.  They accomplished this for several reasons including reducing sentence length and emphasizing rehabilitation.  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/12-0

I would like to see ordinary Americans (including taxpayers and conservatives) confront elected officials and ask why they are wasting our tax dollars on futile “big government” prison programs when lower-cost alternatives exist. Instead of using only “liberal” strategies (abolishing the drug war, etc.), we could devise strategies for a broader spectrum of voters to demand sensible reforms to our criminal justice system.

So long as ordinary Americans and politicians are fixated on punishment (instead of actually solving problems), this waste and ineffectiveness will continue.  Fortunately, in the past few years more people of both political parties have started moving toward positive solutions.

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org