Treating prisoners like people actually works

[Gail]

Here is an interesting system that you can find in Norway:

Norway's "free" prison system

[aka]

I'm really grateful for the many positive aspects I learned about with the Norway Prison model from this article.

It encourages me to see their penal system branching out into humanitarian approach with criminals or law breakers. 

Treating the inmates with respect, dignity, and equality reaps rewards in social behavior better than any amount of psycho pharmaceuticals or talking with the psychiatrists. 

[Tom Wetmore]

There is a lot we could learn from the Scandanavians, if we would just set aside our American arrogance.  The products of our prison system should tell us they are doing more harm than good, that they simply are not working. if we would just seriously consider these successful methods of reformation and restoration (sounds like. Biblical idea!) and try to reform our own ways, I think we would be surprised at the results.  Another area of prison reform that I researched for a criminology course in law school was the value  of serious job/work skill training.  Those prisons that have the goal of making productive employable citizens with real life skills required by society had dramatically lower recidivism among those released from their job trading programs. 

[Gregory Matthews]

AS  I read the article, only a minority of the prisoners could participate in such a program and only after time in a more traditional system.  The majority were in a more traditional prison system.