Prisons in the United States vs Norway
1.United States
Over the course of the last century, the United States has quickly moved into having the largest prison population in the world. According to The Sentencing Project, the US used to incarcerate around 90,000 people (1925); however, this number peaked in 2009 when over 1.5 million people were incarcerated in the United States. In 2020, the last year data was tracked from this source, around 1.2 million people were found behind bars. While this number is smaller, it still accounts for around 25% of the world’s total prison population.
A rise from 90,000 to 1,500,000 people, even over the course of a near century, is extreme, but the change in just the last 40 years accounts for a nearly 500% increase in our total prison population. What’s the reasoning for such a drastic bump? In 1960, the crime rate in the United States was 1,887.2 per 100,000 people. Today, this rate has grown to 2,489.3 per 100,000 people; however, the crime rate in the United States peaked in 1991, when a whopping 5,897.8 crimes were committed per 100,000 people. With such an increased population locked up in our prisons, one would expect the crime rate to drop alongside it; however, it seems the large levels of incarceration that the US boasts haven’t had a large impact on the crime rate in the country.
On top of the fact that prisons are flooded with people in the United States, the quality of those prisons are not good. Prisons today are known for their increasing levels of violence, assault, and lack of treatment for mental illness, which only increases the amount of recidivism, the rate of criminal reoffenders, that we see once people leave the prison walls. If the primary purpose of prison is to prepare offenders to re-enter society, then these conditions and lack of treatment are counterintuitive. I feel that the priority of prison should be to rehabilitate, rather than get retribution, and in order to reach this eventual goal and lower both the prison rate and the recidivism rate, the quality of prisons must be improved.
2.Norway
In some other countries, prisons and prison rates are severely more reformed. For example, Norway is often hailed as having the best prison system in the world for both those incarcerated, as well as the economy of the country. That’s right, the prisons in Norway promote economic growth. Not only are these prisons beneficial to the country, but they are not overly flooded and provide those incarcerated within them with opportunities for self-growth and trade skills to utilize once they leave the prison.
Beginning with their prison rate, Norway (population of around 5 million) has only 4,000 incarcerated people in their prison system. That’s around 75 people per 100,000, compared to the United States which has around 700 incarcerated people per 100,000. Additionally, Norway has a mere 20% recidivism rate, one of the lowest in the world, compared to a staggering 76.6% in the United States. In other words, in Norway when prisoners get out, they stay out. Here, when they get you, they’ll probably be back.
Not only are the number of people that we see in Norwegian prisons lower than that we see in the United States, but the quality of prisons in Norway is wildly different from those that we find here. With no bars on windows, kitchens stocked with sharp objects and camaraderie between prisoners and guards, prisons in Norway promote normalcy; moreover, they offer vocational training to inmates in order to prepare them for life once they leave the prison walls.
3.Conclusion
In the United States, the prison system is concerned with retribution first, then rehabilitation, but it’s clear that Norway’s method (rehabilitation first, then retribution) is more effective in lowering crime rates, lowering recidivism rates, and lowering prison rates. The United States is in dire need of prison reform as our current system becomes increasingly overflooded with multiple-time offenders. It’s time to make meaningful changes in our prison systems in order to ensure that those who leave prison walls don’t return, as well as lowering the number that becomes incarcerated, and Norwegian prisons are a prime example that the United States can use to start this process.
Sources:
https://www.sentencingproject.org/research/
https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
https://eji.org/issues/prison-conditions/
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12
This piece comparing the prison systems in the United States to that in Norway was a new and interesting way to examine the American prison system. After reading this, it is clear that there are many things the American prison system lacks and can improve upon if we were to take examples from other countries. I was surprised to read that the number of people imprisoned in the United States was around 1.2 million people, which accounts for 25% of the world’s imprisoned population. I knew those numbers would be high, but one country having a quarter of the world’s prison population is absurd.
You used the example of Norway and its prison system, but it is not just Norway that beats out the United States in these comparisons. Nearly every European country has a system very similar to Norway, and they all outdo America by a wide margin. Another strong example like the one you used of Norway is Finland. An article by Daniel T. Allen and Mark Abadi from Insider.com talks about the “open prison system.” They explain, “…inmates stay in dormitories equipped with internet access, and for fun, they can take recreational dips in a frozen lake.” They also say that this model, “…is instrumental for rehabilitating prisoners and reducing their chances of winding up behind bars again after their release.” The recidivism rate in Finland is 33%, compared to the United States rate of 44%, which is one of the highest in the world. The United States must look to other countries for help in finding a solution to this problem that has plagued our country for far too long.
There are many different things that the United States could do to improve its prison system, but the most impactful problem can be fixed by looking at how most European countries handle it. These countries have a strong focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners, which seems to work much better than the United States’ way of punishing these people. Another problem that the United States would solve with this would be that it would lower the chances of recidivism. However, the people in power will not show much interest in finding a solution to help those who are in prison, because they simply do not care enough. The prisons are filled, and so are their pockets. Without changes to the policies surrounding the prison system, we cannot expect to see these people getting the help they deserve.
https://www.businessinsider.com/finland-prisons-technology-ai-online-classes-2020-8#:~:text=So%20perhaps%20it's%20no%20surprise,go%20in%20their%20own%20cars
This post highlights what is wrong with our prison system very well. We choose to kick these people while they are down rather than to help them back up. Seeing the drastically higher recidivism rate in America as compared to Norway really brings this into light. According to Prisonpolicy.org, the United States has an incarceration rate 5x higher than any other country. They also highlight the incarceration rate of individual states as compared to other countries as a whole. The states with the highest rate of incarceration are also those that have a high rate of poverty. According to worldpopulationreview.com, the two states with the highest rate of poverty are Mississippi and Louisiana, who also happen to be the states with the highest incarceration rates as well. This correlation shows the lack of government funded infrastructure, in these lower class communities, that helps the formally incarcerated when they leave the prison system. It is very likely that these people go into prison, get clean, and return right back to living those same lives without any help or rehabilitation. You highlight this point very well. The goal of a prison shouldn’t be retribution and then rehabilitation, rather the other way around. Punishing someone but not giving them the resources to fix it is what is leading to this never ending cycle. With a rate of 76.6% of recidivism, it is easy to imagine why we have a problem with funding these prisons. Less than a quarter of convicts stay out when they get out and coupling that with the number of people who commit their first crime every day, it is easy to point out the problem. There is never going to be a crime rate of 0, but we can take steps in the right direction to get it ever closer. Norway has an outstanding system set in place and it is obviously working. America could take notes. The big problem here however, is money. Money stands to be the problem with most good ideas. Having to fund prisons has long been an issue as you are asking the tax payer to take funding away from things like schools to pay for these convicts. Ironically, school is exactly what they need. All in all, the system itself is perpetuating the problem and it doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. The frame work has been done by other countries, America simply has to learn and listen to what is being done and choose to follow the leader.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/poverty-rate-by-state
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/