<
https://www.wonkette.com/we-never-thought-we-d-live-to-see-gavin-newsom-turning-san-quentin-into-norwegian-style-prison>
'San Quentin is one of the most notorious prisons in the United States, once
home to Charles Manson and — due to the fact that California has not executed
anyone since 2006 — home to the largest death row in the nation.
But California Governor Gavin Newsom has a different vision for it. The prison
will soon close and reopen as a Norwegian-style rehabilitation center to
prepare inmates leaving the prison system for life on the outside.
Unlike the United States, Norway and other Scandinavian countries have humane
prisons, where the punishment is understood to be the loss of their freedom,
not that they are not allowed to leave and also required to be miserable in
other ways as well. Rather, the focus is on preparing them for life and to be
"good neighbors" once they leave prison. They have nice food, pleasant living
arrangements — in actual, regular houses, even — and are not treated like human
garbage.
They also have much shorter prison sentences — no one can be sentenced to more
than 21 years in prison (though in some cases there is an option to renew for
10 year periods) and even that is rare.
While it's unlikely that we will be going so far with San Quentin, there will
be opportunities to gain skills that will transfer on the outside, to be
treated with dignity, and learn to be "good neighbors."'
Via Doug Senko.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
