Somewhat related, but the two architects I personally met, both were the unhappy kind: one was designing casinos, and the other prisons. It's like a real life Far Side cartoon of some sort, both doing exactly the opposite of all the things they learned in school.
Same for the chefs here I guess "Ok, remember what you learned in culinary school? Do exactly the opposite and you'll be just fine".
There's nothing in the article examining its effect on recidivism. It's probably no more effective at that than jail in general, which is to say, there are much more effective interventions.
you raise an interesting point, and I did a bit of a dive into various dictionaries, new and old: chances of re-incarceration after release is an important aspect of criminology and public policy, but it's not built into the word recidivism.
recidivism is "backsliding", so it's more a case of "draw a line or a gradient, then measure recidivism across that line or gradient"
in the context of prisoners, it's probably a good idea to be clear about the sense of the definition chosen.
I don’t know if that’s talking about how folks treat their kids vs how they see prisoners.
“You can’t hit people even if you’re frustrated” is a lesson in common, for example.
And:
> prisoners as people who haven’t yet learned how to act appropriately in the world
People selling and using drugs (non violent, for example) are people who haven’t learned how to act appropriately?
People in prison for dodging military service and drafts?
People in prison for having to steal for feeding their family?
These are the vast majority of people in prisons around the world. These first category being the majority of prisoners in America.
> Or just get yourself tossed into Cook County Jail, where an inmate who causes serious food-related problems buys himself a one-way ticket to Nutraloafopolis. Get caught making homemade hooch in your cell toilet? You get Nutraloaf. Hurl food at a guard or stab someone with a spork? Nutraloaf.
The article calls out that people who are fed Nutraloaf in prison have committed additional offenses. Are you advocating that it’s ok to stab a prison guard if you feel that your incarceration was unfair?
a) it's a county jail, not state or federal prison. the people there wouldn't be hardened criminals there for extended stays. they'd mostly be, afaik, petty criminals and people waiting for trial dates. I suspect the spork stabbings aren't attempts at murder, particularly against prison guards (esp. considering the article says "stab someone" vs "hurl food at a prison guard").
b) the article, the part you quoted in fact, specifically calls out food-related problems, not "additional offenses". making prison wine and throwing food could probably be laboured into offenses if someone with power was vindictive enough, but those are really basic administrative issues and this nutraloaf is an administrative response.
There are many different levels of feeling that something is “unfair,” but in the limit of being incarcerated with no crime, it’s indistinguishable by the incarcerated individual from kidnapping by a large, organized gang. Are you advocating that self defense against kidnappers is inappropriate?
I imagine it is lacking a lot of micronutrients and/or doesnt have them in a bioavailable form.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/soy-diet-is-cruel-and-...
I love cooking and love eating new things but I absolutely hate having to figure out what to eat everyday without just resorting to crappy and expensive take out or fast food. Sometimes I just want to eat something without having to think about it and without eating something that will make me feel bad. I'd love to have a human equivalent of dog food to eat when I'm feeling lazy. A nutraloaf with a bit of salt and seasonings probably wouldn't be too bad. It's not a ribeye, loaded baked potato, and Caesar salad but it has all of your nutrients and about as close to whole food as you can get without actually being whole food. It could be sold frozen or in retort pouches (cooked in the pouch) or you could just make your own and freeze it.
Imagine being the designer of AA missiles: "Customer requirement is to destroy an aircraft containing human being, with maximum effectiveness and minimum cost."
Imagine doing any hurtful thing whatsoever, without the context of why it's being done.
The Nutraloaf is what they give to prisoners after pretty much every other punitive measure is attempted to correct their behavior. If there were a more humane measure, they'd have tried that already.
Edit: Imagine being the writer of a Hacker News comment: "Customer requirement is to bring the maximum amount of sense to a discussion, without violating any of the community's sacred cows."