The United States Prison System - 1215 Words

The United States prison system incarcerates more people per capita than nearly all European countries, and roughly two-thirds of those inmates that are released will be arrested again within three years (Ward et al, 2015). Some facilities have relatively successful programs that cut down on the recidivism numbers. However, the majority of prisons are focused on punishment and make no efforts at rehabilitation. Something in the American justice systems needs to change so that the cycle can be broken. To accomplish this, we can look at the justice system of other countries and try to determine whether such systems would work in the United States. Norway’s prison system, for example, is rated among the best in the world by the numbers. The†¦show more content†¦This is not so easily done in a capitalist system. Also, there is not as much social and economic inequality in Norway as there is in America. Most experts will point out the importance of this factor on crime num bers. This can be attributed in part to the previously mentioned difference in governmental systems. So while the Norwegian system as a whole likely cannot be enacted in the United States, it is possible that certain elements can be carried over to the American system in order to improve it. Due to the general American mentality toward justice – which is largely retributive and not restorative, particularly for heinous crimes like murder – these changes would likely be best implemented in cases where the crimes are less severe. People who have been convicted of theft, arson, drug charges, and other minor offenses stand the best chance of being rehabilitated. To throw these nonviolent individuals into prisons with more serious offenders, and potentially with subhuman conditions, may lead to them becoming violent. At the very least, they are more likely to reoffend. Though an extreme case, Miami’s â€Å"mega-jail† houses 7,000 inmates, and most of them are on remand for relatively minor offenses – and yet the atmosphere is extremely violent (Theroux, 2011). If we can cut down on these instances through changes geared towards restorative justice, we stand a