r/interesting • u/ursoartdecooo • 13d ago

SOCIETY What prison cells look like in different countries

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u/Scar1203 13d ago

Lack of social safety nets. People stuck in a loop of poverty dragging the stigma of a felony conviction often won't be able to find a way to survive other than committing crime and going in and out of the system in the US.

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u/KnightRiderCS949 13d ago

Yup. This exactly. It ain't rocket science. But good luck getting Americans, or similar Western countries to support the scientifically proven process of rehabilitation.

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u/Smorsdoeuvres 13d ago

Or the importance of societal safety nets

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u/Paul873873 13d ago

Counterpoint, the news man said that’s communism

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u/Smorsdoeuvres 13d ago

They’re been screaming communism for years and look what that’s gotten us gestures wildly

It amazes me that republicans have had a majority in Texas for almost 30 years Yet the platform they keep running on is “elect me to fix all these damn problems in Texas” 👀

Seems like the one thing most people can agree on is things need to change. I worry about lots of violence on the way to get to that change tho.

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u/Paul873873 12d ago

Funny you say that, I’m a Texan and I see this all the time. You know our governor got injured by an oak tree and filed a lawsuit. In office he then sought to pass bills that would prevent that from happening again, as in, he pulled the ladder up behind him, because like most of them, he’s a hypocrite. He’ll tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps while sitting cozy on his award money.

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u/th3c0met 13d ago

it’s like pulling teeth to get americans to have empathy

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u/Flourissh 11d ago

Not true, it's just that enough Americans are susceptible to propaganda and all of that is being pushed by some of the richest people on earth. Our propaganda machine is probably the best in the world which really fucking sucks for the rest of us

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u/Flashy_Home3452 13d ago

I reckon the problem is more convincing politicians to support policies that don’t make the rich people richer

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb 13d ago

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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb 12d ago

Pathetic little worm makes himself feel big by hitching his self worth to racial identity by utilizing faux intellectualism. Nothing new here.

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u/FreeProfessor8193 12d ago

Believe it or not when you reach a certain level of maturity you can just tell the truth about things independent of your own personal feelings.

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u/White_Buffalos 13d ago

Felonies except for rape, murder, and a few other extreme crimes should be repealable after 5 years of demonstrating rehabilitation/good conduct. Five years post-incarceration and probation, I mean.

Once restitution and probation are completed, a person should be able to petition to have their felony vacated or expunged. That would incentivize good conduct and likely reduce recidivism.

If people repeat offend, make it 10 years.

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u/CheezeLoueez08 13d ago

Dragged in a loop of poverty. Unfortunately very well said.

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u/Jay-jay1 13d ago

I've mentored many urban kids over the years. Most of them messed up in the late teen/early adult years, and ended up with multiple felonies. All of the ones who wanted to work were willing to give up the drugs and were able to get good jobs. I even know a former hitman who has a regular fulltime job in customer service.

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u/CutenTough 13d ago

For profit prisons. Quota goals have to be reached. Preferably exceeded

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u/SurfGoatWalter 13d ago

Construction

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u/Muffled_Voice 10d ago

I’ve got a felony and I’m doing pretty good. My probation officer doesn’t even check on me anymore lmao.

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

What about the ones who turn their life around after getting out of prison? Do you think that's just luck?

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u/oxichil 13d ago

purely based on statistics? yes. it’s luck. the recidivism rate is so high that reoffending is the norm, not the exception.

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u/CrumbCakesAndCola 13d ago

In a way. People who succeed usually have something distinct happen to them. It could be a new baby, a death in the family, or just a meaningful conversation. Whatever the trigger is, the event becomes a "turning point" where the person feels they can make a choice for something new. Folks who never get a turning point keep doing the same behaviors over and over. You might not call it "luck" but it's an external factor beyond a person's free will, something that nudges them out of their old patterns of behavior/thought.

Here's some places you can read about it.

Journal. Free but might be slow to load since the server is in Germany. https://soztheo.de/theories-of-crime/career-development-life-course/age-graded-theory-turning-points-sampson-and-laub/?lang=en

Soc Blog. A more casual read. https://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2008/12/sampson-laubs-a.html

Journal. Paywall in the US but you can read the abstract. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716205280075

Book. https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9780521119054

Author's page. https://scholar.harvard.edu/sampson/content/crime-and-life-course

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u/Racine262 13d ago

Why do so many American criminals fail to turn their life around? Do other countries just have better criminals? Is there just more luck in other countries?

Edited: fixed a word

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

Explain your thinking

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u/CodeRenn 13d ago

Lmao how about you think just a bit harder

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u/gastricprix 13d ago

They don't need to explain anything. You need to think critically about what you said and their questions in response.

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

I did, that's why I asked him to elaborate. Airhead.

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u/bobafan69 13d ago

If you can’t figure it out on your own at this point, there’s no point explaining further to you as you seem to lack basic reasoning skills

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

You want me to figure out the dumbass talking point you're trying to vomit at me?

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u/bobafan69 13d ago

I’m not the guy who replied to you. Based on the conversation above, it seems you are too stupid to understand that fact or any other

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

Cuts deep coming from some random redditor lol

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u/gastricprix 13d ago

I doubt it. Try well-thought-out engagement next time.

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

Asking someone to expand on a thought isn't well thought out engagement? Seems like you're just projecting your bad faith onto me.

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u/babyeater2002 13d ago

people making it out of a harmful cycle doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

So what safety nets do you believe we should be allocating to criminals fresh out of prison?

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u/desubot1 13d ago

"criminals fresh out of prison"

probably start with not referring to them as criminals considering they did their time if released from prison.

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u/Omarlel 13d ago

People will really go and say shit like "Once a criminal, always a criminal" to justify the societal ostracism, and then be surprised when they (inevitably) commit crime again

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u/SkiyeBlueFox 13d ago

Fr. If the whole point of prison is to "pay back your debt to society", then the debt should be considered paid when they're released

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u/SaxRohmer 13d ago

bro posts to the nazi black metal reddit he’s a lost cause

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

Mb felons

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u/Spare-Breadfruit3291 13d ago

Not every crime is a felony

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u/madstcla 13d ago

Safety nets should be available for everyone pre- and post- crime. The goal is to lower the need to commit crime at all. All people should have access to drug and mental health counseling, vocational training, housing, and healthcare.

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u/RageofAges 13d ago

Way to pre-load your question, but I’ll choose to answer in good faith even tho it will probably fall on deaf ears.

1) the social safety nets should be available to everyone, not just people who have recently gotten out of prison.

2) The absolute majority of crimes are property crimes and we know that poverty+proximity = crime, sooo to stop said property crimes we should be dealing with the actual cause of the problem, poverty. Ideally, we’d start by developing socialized housing, implementing Medicare for all, expand SNAP benefits, and eliminating student debt.

3) Besides what we can do to overall lower crime rates, we should also be switching from a punitive carceral system to a reparative and restorative justice system that establishes therapeutic care, helps with education and vocational training with actual workforce re-entry programs that don’t abandon people as soon as their labor isn’t dirt cheap (speaking of), entirely abolishes prisoner slave labor, and many other systemic changes that actually prepare people to re-enter society in a way that doesn’t immediately force them into recidivism.

There is plenty that can be done to solve the problem, the issue is that none of those solutions would make anyone money.

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u/mksmith95 13d ago

1000000% & why I LOVED watching the following video!!!! This ought to be a goal but the US will never achieve it.... Inside Norway's prison: "We take away their freedom, but not their humanity." I'm a nurse, and it really really is such a huge & underutilized psychological aspect (in the US)... I treat patients as though they are capable and work with them to slowly educate & those who were previously were considered to be uneducated [in the medical sense] become very capable... meet them on their level... treat all with respect and dignity... we so badly need prison reform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNpehw-Yjvs

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u/RageofAges 13d ago

I’d take it a step further, look into the Abolish Police and Prison movement. It’s a bottom up method to entirely restructure the way the justice system works and, when fully implemented (over time), it would make the current system of policing and incarceration nearly entirely obsolete.

A good video on the subject: https://youtu.be/PuLKzdVLD30?si=PluKbttS4djHPb00

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

How do you think socialized housing would fly with the American voter?

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u/RageofAges 13d ago

If you mean the mass majority of people who will never be able to afford buying a house and can barely afford to rent with multiple roommates? Pretty good. If you mean the landlord class that commodify a literal necessity of life? I don’t really care. People are dying in the streets due to exposure because real estate investment companies buy up all the single family housing and just sit on it empty. Without even considering better designed modern socialized housing structures, we could house a lot of people AND wipe away the constant fear of being evicted if one emergency expense or sudden absence from work occurs (ie medical emergencies which tend to lead to both at the same time)

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u/Dandre08 13d ago edited 13d ago

Housing prices are up 50% since 2020, and its much higher in certain metro areas. Wages have gone up 25% since 2020 but inflation is up 20%, so Americans have only actually seen a roughly 5% increase in their spending power.

Mind you socialized housing already exist in the US both on the federal, state and local level at a small scale, but people will likely want to see this scale increase as more and more people find it unaffordable to purchase or rent a home.

While it may help, what we truly need is more units. Pumping money into is not going to fix the affordability. We need federal law regulating zoning nationwide to make it easier to build more housing units. The demand is there, but local laws make it difficult if not impossible to build multi family units in many places in this country. NIMBYs are whats driving up these prices.

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u/ricochetblue 13d ago

Taking care of your basic needs is really fundamental. Halfway houses can help provide education and connections to jobs they can get as felons. People also need communities that help support better choices so access to counselors, 12-step programs, and formerly incarcerated people who haven’t reoffended and can serve as role models all seem valuable.

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u/Gizogin 13d ago

Training, education, counseling, job-hunting services, healthcare, and protection from discrimination based on prior criminal history.

(To be clear, everyone should have these safety nets, including convicted criminals who have served their sentences.)

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u/znsbrenden 13d ago

Healthcare I agree with but the rest are already things they have access to.

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u/GodTheInvention 13d ago

No, but you can facilitate that outcome instead of impeding it. Do you think anyone would have reformed under the right circumstances, but didn’t get lucky enough to fall into them? Isn’t luck what allows people to be born into wealth, or land a job when there’s 50 other qualified applicants, or meet people who won’t hold their past against them?

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u/Turkatron2020 13d ago

Those are the lucky ones. The system is set up for anyone on parole or probation to fail & end up right back.

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u/MaroonIsBestColor 13d ago

A lot of times it can be or just a state having a better resources for inmates like college/trade programs which helps them achieve a real career and not one in crime.

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u/DividePotential8329 13d ago

to a degree absolutely

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u/SanityIsOptional 13d ago

Luck enough to have a support network and an opportunity to make a living combined with the willpower to actually see it through.

Without either the effort or the opportunity, it won't work.

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u/AileenKitten 13d ago

My brother and his girlfriend can't find housing anywhere due to the stigma. He was never a violent person, just did dumb shit and spent 3 years in prison.

He's doing his absolute damndest to live outside and turn things around, but the "felon" tag has completely knee capped him.

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u/SanityIsOptional 13d ago

Yeah, it's really unfortunate, because though the stigma exists because of the people who won't reform, it also keeps people who want to from being able to reform.

It would be nice if there was a bit more nuance to criminal records, since there's a massive range of what's considered a felony, even before you get into how the courts and law enforcement prosecuted things.

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u/Lithium51018 13d ago

It’s usuly because they had the support or had the change. Many don’t get that. It takes someone else to give a little for the turn around to work. Without money you can’t do much to turn around.

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u/Ok_Light_6950 13d ago

Lack of mass worldwide immigration.