Stephan: The American Gulag is a national shame, and a blight on the integrity of the United States. With five per cent of the world's population we have 25 per cent of the world's prisoners. Many, if not most, housed in facilities that are, or should be, a scandal and embarrassment.
And the prison privatization drive has proven that making profit out of warehousing human beings is not only a morally scummy activity, but one that produces even worse outcomes than the publicly owned prisons.
Here is a report on how another country, Germany, handles prisons. It makes a humiliating comparison.
I am currently in Sweden presenting a paper at a water conference, and for the past three days I have been listening to the views Scandinavians hold about the United States. City on a shining hill. Forget that. How about dangerous bully run by a corrupt oligarchy, and a country a number of people have told me they now avoid. "I had always wanted to visit Chicago, but my wife thinks it is just too dangerous," "Yes, I agree, how can you live in a country where the police shoot people for no reason that makes sense," was an exchange I heard at dinner tonight.
A modern German prison cell.
Earlier this summer, we led a delegation of people concerned about the United States criminal justice system to visit some prisons in Germany and observe their conditions. What we saw was astonishing.
The men serving time wore their own clothes, not prison uniforms. When entering their cells, they slipped out of their sneakers and into slippers. They lived one person per cell. Each cell was bright with natural light, decorated with personalized items such as wall hangings, plants, family photos and colorful linens brought from home. Each cell also had its own bathroom separate from the sleeping area and a phone to call home with. The men had access to communal kitchens, with the utensils a regular kitchen would have, where they could cook fresh food purchased with wages earned in vocational programs.
We hoped that we were getting a glimpse of what the future of the American criminal justice system could look like.
This is an encouraging moment for American advocates of criminal justice reform. After […]
