SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
While the UK and much of the world struggles with overcrowded prisons, the Netherlands has the opposite problem. It is actually short of people to lock up. In the past few years 19 prisons have closed down and more are slated for closure next year. How has this happened - and why do some people think it's a problem?
...
"In the Dutch service we look at the individual," says Van der Spoel."If somebody has a drug problem we treat their addiction, if they are aggressive we provide anger management, if they have got money problems we give them debt counselling. So we try to remove whatever it was that caused the crime. The inmate himself or herself must be willing to change but our method has been very effective. Over the last 10 years, our work has improved more and more."
He adds that some persistent offenders - known in the trade as "revolving-door criminals" - are eventually given two-year sentences and tailor-made rehabilitation programmes. Fewer than 10% then return to prison after their release. In England and Wales, and in the United States, roughly half of those serving short sentences reoffend within two years, and the figure is often higher for young adults.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @04:30AM
160 hours? I'd tell the judge to send me to jail. Jail is nice. You get a bed, three meals a day, and all the books you can read. If you like to play spades, chess, rummy, work out or rap you'll have plenty to do.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @04:50AM
also plenty to do if you like the cock
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 12 2016, @10:30AM
But, it's not your option. It's SOCIETY'S option. No, we don't WANT your lazy ass in a prison cell, watching television all day. You are going down to the park this week, and put in 40 hours of hard manual labor, making the park pretty for our law-abiding citizens to enjoy. Next week, you'll be out picking up litter along the highway for another 40 hours. Following week, you're going to help the highway maintenance crew, shoveling macadam into pot holes. Your last week, we'll send you back to the park to chop more briars and weeds out of the meadows.
You want to sit in a comfy cell? You can kiss my ass, and the asses of all taxpayers.
(Score: 2, Informative) by kc on Saturday November 12 2016, @05:18PM
This idea has already been tried. It is literally slavery as punishment for a crime. And it is still for-profit and therefore it would be abused to provide cheap labor for either public property or for private companies.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 13 2016, @12:37AM
First - define "slavery". No, this is NOT slavery. This is more like bond servitude. Bond servitude and slavery are remotely related, for sure, in that a person is deprived of some freedoms in either case. But, a bond servant has a lot more freedoms than either a slave, OR a person in prison. A bond servant gets to go home at night, see his family, go to a movie, enjoy social and/or sexual intercourse - the list goes on.
Bond servitude is vastly preferable to our current prison system. Vastly.
And, the whole pupose of this exercise, is to ensure that people learn to WANT TO WORK, and WANT TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @10:24AM
And how do you enforce that? Send me to jail if I don't comply?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 14 2016, @02:50PM
First - you would go to jail, as you ask, and not to a for-profit prison.
Second - you would NOT like any jail that I was in charge of. See, no work, no eat. You'll scrub the jail house from top to bottom, front to bad, and side to side, wax the floors, and wash the windows BEFORE breakfast is served. People who have lived in barracks know what I mean.
When breakfast is served, you'll think of Sheriff Joe in Arizona. A slice of cold balogna, two slices of bread, and a glass of water.
After breakfast, you will be permitted to go outside, cut the grass, trim the hedges, and whatever other work might be assigned.
Again, lunch won't be served until the assigned tasks are finished.
Lunch will consist of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a glass of water. But, you can drink all the water you want.
After lunch more chores. We're going to keep you busy, boy. No, you don't really HAVE TO WORK. You can refuse. And, we will refuse you dinner as well.
It's your choice. We don't have to feed the deadweight of society. Pull your weight, and we'll feed you. Don't pull your weight, and we'll allow you to lie in bed, comfortably, as you starve yourself to death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @11:31PM
Wow, that's BETTER food than jail! Breakfast is usually oatmeal, frozen apples, and water + "milk", lunch is really shitty fake bologna/salami/ham depending on the day + horrible koolaid mix (seriously the only ingredients are strange chemicals and food coloring, and it will stain concrete, I always save them and trade or gamble them), dinner is soy-based fake food with more koolaid. Peanut butter and jelly comes once a week, and I would save the peanut butter packs and trade other stuff for them because it's the most filling and nutritious food available. Second, haha, "cruel and unusual punishment". Coerced labor and starvation is definitely cruel. The way jail already works is that trustees (those prisoners who choose to work, or rather, don't refuse when they are assigned to work), have special priveleges (reduced time, some of them get paid or get discounts on commisary, some of them get access to outside and smuggle contraband) and there are WAITING lists, because there's not enough work to go around. If you wanted to put this into action you'd have to dramatically reduce the number of inmates or the increase the number of jails.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 15 2016, @01:31AM
Don't worry, the food offered will be marginally nutritious. I've heard horror stories about some kinda fake meatloaf crap - supposed to have all the vitamins and minerals, but even a starving man thinks twice about eating it. The thing is, you won't GET food if you won't work.
There will be work to do, I promise, for everyone. The floor may be gleaming, but you can always scrub it again. Think "boot camp". Pointless labor to fill the time. White glove inspections at any time. Even the bars on the cells will gleam. Everyone will be a trustee in my jail, because everyone will work. Police cars need to be washed, maybe two or three times a day.