Comparative Essay Example: Norway's Prison System vs. The United States Prison System

📌Category: Crime, Criminal Justice
📌Words: 1181
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 16 April 2022

The United States prison system has many faults and terrible outcomes for those who go into it. The goal of prisons or systems alike is to deter people from committing future crimes. The way of going about that differs from country to country. Compared to the United States’ prison system, Norway’s model is far better and should be used by us. 

Since the beginning of the United States, we have had the people in charge exploiting those who they deem lesser than or not worthy, starting with slavery. Enslaved people were taken and used for the sole purpose of free labor, but were never really considered whole people by society. Although slavery was outlawed with the creation of the 13th amendment, a form of slavery is still legal: prison labor. The 13th amendment specifically states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (US Constitution). In the United States, slavery is still legal if a citizen has been convicted of a crime, which is completely inhumane. 

According to the Left Business Observer, federal prisons and those prisoned inside them are used to produce military helmets, war supplies, and other equipment for the government. Other than supplies for the government, prisoners also make art supplies, stove pieces, body armor, home appliances, and much more. Although they are doing all this labor and providing for many Americans, prisoners are paid $4 a day at the absolute most, and their salary can go all the way down to 90 cents a day. Some bigger corporations that use prison labor are McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Walmart, and Starbucks for various food packaging as well as Victoria’s Secret and J.C. Penney for clothing production or altering (Rahiem Shabazz). Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg, and also the only ones that have been mainlined and publicized. 

Being forced to live off that $0.90 to $4 a day is completely inhumane and unjust. Prisoners still have expenses they pay if they ever want anything more than the grim minimum they are given by law. That measly amount of money gets them nowhere, and most of the time, prisoners have to rely on outside help from close people, which some prisoners may not have. 

Another horrible part of our prison system here in the United States is the abuse prisoners are put through. Just here in an Allegheny County prison, a trans woman was repeatedly raped because they refused to allow her into a women's prison facility. When she was refused a women’s prison, Jules Williams requested to be placed in protective custody. She was then denied that as well, and since the prisons were so overcrowded, she was also placed with a male inmate in the same cell. That inmate happened to be a convicted rapist, which led Williams to endure “sexual, physical, and verbal abuse” (“Williams v. Allegheny County,” 2017). Over four days, Williams was raped by the other inmate for four days, in which she cried out for help and never got it (Schmitt).

Along with Williams’ case, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also taken on pregnant women in the Allegheny County prisons who have been hurt by the system. They were put into solitary confinement for weeks on end, with very little of the necessities they needed for their ongoing pregnancy or themselves. The pregnant women were not provided with prenatal care such as vitamins and other things vital for both the mother’s and baby’s health. 

Unfortunately, the stories of Jules Williams and the pregnant women are only a few of very many. On top of the borderline unpaid labor exploited in the prison systems, the US has very minimal protection laws. The United States prison system was not built to keep prisoners safe, and in many cases, doesn’t.

The United States prison system is meant to punish those who commit any form of crime. Plain and simple. Because we only want to punish, those who are in prison for any duration of time lose real world skills and the simple ability to function in it. Norway’s prison system, on the other hand, was made to rehabilitate those who commit crime into functioning members of society. They create living conditions made to treat prisoners like real people instead of animals in cages. They allow the prisoners to grow and learn through different educational and mental health services. 

To prove Norway’s system works better than ours, you can just look at the percentage of crime rates. On top of the United States having an 87% higher crime rate per capita than Norway, our percentage of repeat offenders is a lot higher as well. A repeat offender is someone who commits a crime, gets sent to prison, and then ends up getting sent right back for another crime after getting released. Norway has the lowest rate of this happening, at 20%, while the United States has about 63% of prisoners becoming repeat offenders. 

The reason Norway’s system produces better results than ours is simple. The United States prison system runs on treating prisoners like animals and people that need to be tamed. The Norway prison system runs on humanity, where they treat prisoners like real people and educate and allow them to live the same way. 

Fear is also a basis on which the United States prison system runs. Beyond Scared Straight is a perfect example. On the show, they brought in at-risk teenagers to scare them by sending them into a prison for a scheduled day of prisoner watching. This show took people who were socialized into lifelong criminals by a system meant to hurt them, and used them to frighten kids who may have gone down the same path. Despite the scare tactics used to defer the teenagers from a life of crime, many of them were led down that path anyway, right into the prisons. This just creates one big circle of nonstop criminals and violence. 

Inside the Norway prisons, prisoners have approximately the same rights and abilities as on the outside, besides being fully in society itself. The rooms have amenities such as wooden beds, tvs, work areas, and their own showers. They are often compared to dorm rooms in a way. During the days, prisoners take part in more peaceful activities that aim to stimulate the minds and help them learn more. Some of the more basic day to day things the prisoners take part in are yoga, ceramics and other arts, cooking, music, among other things. Some career related education that is offered are classes in mechanics, carpentry, and cooking, all of which can be and are used once the prisoners are released from their sentence. 

How I like to think of it is this: how would you feel if you were thrown in a cage and had all your rights, including some basic human rights, taken away. You would rarely see the light of day or be able to enjoy most aspects of life. The answer is, most people would feel inhuman. That’s how prisoners are treated in the United States. The less we treat people like actual people, the less they continue to be actual people. Norway has the right idea, and we need to match their sentiment. 

All in all, the United States needs to adopt Norway’s way of running their prisons. Our way of running things clearly isn’t working right, and it needs an immediate change. Rehabilitating prisoners into functioning members of society should be a key aspect of prisons, as it is for Norway. We need to help, not hurt our people.

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