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Comment by walshemj | Hacker News Reader

To play devils advocate prison contracts have valid extra costs you have to vet contactors more than say an office cleaner.

You also have to budget for extra security if your a contractor working in a prison you have to log all of your tools in and out to stop inmates nicking things that could be used as weapons or to aid an escape

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I agree with who on the whole but I'm going to play....Angel's advocate? (What do you call the person playing devil's advocate to the Devil's advocate?)

There is a (relatively famous) prison in Norway where the rehabilitation is so effective that the prisoner's are given these jobs and are handed chainsaws, picks, the keys to the boat off the island. The prisoners are the ones ferrying people to and from the prison.

Sounds to me like (for the most part) we're doing prison wrong in the states.

What level of security is the prison? There are low security facilities in the United States where prisoners leave to work for the day and have to be back at a certain time.

Do you have any link(s) on this?

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/inmates/wr.html

Agreed. But how many ppl are in low security vs. max security?

How easy is it politically to build a min security facility in an area affluent enough to have day jobs for prisoners vs. building a max security prison in the middle of unemployed nowhere?

How common is that though? Taking one example is pretty fraught especially because the prisoners that are sent to that prison are naturally going to be of the lower risk, non-violent type unless that's how a majority of the prisons are run. There are prisons in the US with very open security too (though mainly for rich white collar criminals but then that's a group with a low likely-hood of attempting to escape). Heck there's a fair number of programs where prisoners are given big tools like that here in the US too.

nope, its not just an anecdotal example, its an entire country, and multiple countries in Europe do this now. They are collectively intelligent enough to agree everyone is better off when you enable people for success instead of punishment, torture, emotional and social isolation, abuse, lack of food and healthy outlets, and give them access to a job, a sense of pride, and allow them to reabilitate themselves.

but this is all based on a deep rooted belief that most people are good, and crime is usually a result of low income/and growing up in places stuck in a cycle of socioeconomic hopelessness (atleast the kind of crime people are imprisoned for, weve already established wallstreet bankers commit crime and dont go to prison), taking people out of these toxic environments and equipping them with a job where they are exposed to society and have a chance to rebuild their lives is beneficial, for them, and society as a whole.

In U.S. politics we have 300million people binned into two extremist views and prison reform is'nt trending hot on twitter right now and if it was it would be used as a litmus test to pit half the country against the other and a debate about whether people deserve the life they have or can better themselves and deserve to be treated better and we all know how that has played out in politics recently. bigotry and stereotyping win.

Very little hope for the incarcerated in this country

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