Should the US have a justice system like Norway's?

[Surrealistik]

Yes: Norway's results speak for themselves, though I agree it could not be all done at once due to the immense cost and complexity of changing incarcerations from a for-profit corrections industry with recidivism, not rehabilitation and reintegration, as its primary goal and output. Softening or better yet abolishing the majority of narcotics laws, arbitrary sentencing without evidential basis (including minimum sentencing), and private jails (which are laden in perverse incentives, which include lobbying for creation of new offenses and more severe penalties for existing ones, beyond encouraging recidivism, and do not save money), and focusing on rehabilitation and societal reintegration via universal study and job training programs would be an excellent start.

 

[TurtleDude]

Realistically, our incarceration numbers would make such living arrangements prohibitively expensive.

But i think we can learn from their example. Prisoners are still humans, they deserve to be treated with respect. If you treat prisoners like dogs, you shouldn't be surprised when they start barking like dogs. The Stanford prison experiment showed this decades ago: people are a product of their environment.

I agree with that and we incarcerate far too many people. But I would like to see more would be victims killing their attackers. But we lock people up far too long for far too many things.

 

[WCH]

No clue, but considering the low amount of inmates there are, the chances of an offender that needs one is rather low

We do have an excess of trans-gender inmates...apparently.

 

[Southern Dad]

Your prison system is too easy? LOL. It is a massive billion dollar business and that is why there is a revolving door. Any and all excuses to put people in prison is more money to the prison industry...

No, not quite. People don't go to prison for any excuse. They go to prison for violating the law. In addition, most of the prisons in this country are not privately owned, they are owned and operated by the government. Yes, there are some private prisons but that's not the majority of them. People get out of prison, reoffend and go back to prison where they can fist bump all their buddies walking in the doors.

 

[joG]

The real question is why in your example rape is a higher offense than murder. Stick your penis in a woman get 20 years, blow her head off and plead insanity, get 5 years in a looney bin unless you screw up your defense.

If you rape and kill, do you get 25?

 

[PoS]

The country will go bankrupt if we try what the Norwegians are doing.

I think we ought to do what John Carpenter suggests:

 

[SCitizen]

Norway has a very humane justice system -- I am 100% for it.

Russian justice system is harsher then Norway's but much much more humane then US justice system.

 

[SCitizen]

Your prison system is too easy? LOL.

USA 2016 has the same incarceration rate as USSR under Stalin. The Soviet harshness was due to the emergency -- preparation of war with Germany, then War with Germany, then US threat. Soviet system was harsh in the face of existential threat. The US system today is harsh for no legitimate reason.

 

[Consistency]

My initial thought was to answer 'no'.
But then I realized that the majority of the prisoners in the U.S. are in for victimless crimes, such as drug possession, prostitution, consensual sex between an adult and a near-adult, weapons possession, concealed carrying without a license, driving without a license, evading arrest, or resisting arrest. Therefore, creating a cushy prison system like that of Norway may treat some truly bad people too softly, but it would also spare countless innocent people undue suffering; therefore the tradeoff is worth it.

And by the way, we are talking about penal systems, not justice systems.
To call the U.S. penal system a 'justice system' is a grave insult to true justice.

 

[SCitizen]

no doubt.... I'd have killed for an apparent like that when I was growing up.... that's a nicer place than a lot ( millions) of free people live in.

That is because US has a terrible wellfare system and a terrible mental health system.

 

[RetiredNSmilin]

Inner city thugs would be raping the female guards, destroying their rooms, and tearing up anything nice they could lay their hands on.

Norway does NOT have criminals like the US has criminals in its inner cities.

You cannot go on the assumption they are like normal people. They are NOT. They are animals that only think about themselves and the here and now, and do not consider the consequences of what they do to other people in anything they do.

Our "Great Society" created this new type of individual that is a complete sociopath, and dwells in American inner cities.

 

[ajn678]

You can't simply compare two systems from two countries that are vastly different and think it would work here. There are many vast differences between the US and Norway. Norway is not as diverse as America is. With diversity comes great things that America is known for. It also brings great amounts of hate, misunderstandings, biases, and slavery(which has had a huge impact). Also, the social structure of Norway is very different. Norway is much better involved in social programs that help people that are on the lower side of things, which often can lower the crime rate. They also have a much better family structure in Norway than the United States. No matter how much the far left progressives want to tell us that growing up in a single parent home is fine, statistics show that this leads to violence and crime. Norway also is much more efficient in educating their children than the United States. But perhaps the biggest difference between the two nations is our problems in fueling gangs with our war on drugs. Not only does this put millions of addicts and recreational users in jail, it encourages millions of poverty ridden young people to make a living selling drugs. If we take out gang crime, then our national crime rates go down to European levels and in many ways, exceed them.

Our problem isn't the vast majority of Americans in this country. Its not our 2nd Amendment right to carry guns. It is our government's creation of the War on Drugs that has given so many people meaningless lives as they spend decades either being addicted to drugs, or selling them to get by. So yes, I have no problem with removing ridiculous sentences for drug users and drug convictions. That does not mean I support someone getting 6 years for murder. I really have no problem with someone that kills someone in cold blood staying in jail for the rest of their lives. It is when you start doing this to people that have drug addictions or people that are selling drugs to get by. A lot of our problems with crime in America stem from the War of Drugs, and it is time we stop these horrendous policies.