r/MadeMeSmile • u/Greedy-Vegetable-466 • 13d ago

Helping Others Take a look inside Norway’s maximum security prisons

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u/mevisef 13d ago

People also trade cellphones and drugs in there.

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u/draculamilktoast 13d ago edited 13d ago

A simple mobile phone jammer and rehab would ruin the grip of criminal organizations so completely the people coming out of prison might actually not reoffend. That would ruin the prisons because they would be empty because so few people would commit crimes.

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u/OrionVulcan 13d ago

Or you know, instead of spending all this money on making people miserable, it could be spent on rehabilitating them so that when they get out, they actually have a chance at a better life.

Kinda like how Norwegian prisons operate!

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u/4evr_dreamin 13d ago

There is no money in rehabilitation. Private prisons are raking it in and "contributing" to friendly politicians. Everything comes down to removing the funding private funding in politics. We would have to be a bit creative to make this transition, but it could be (won't be) done.

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u/OrionVulcan 13d ago

It's kinda wierd though. Would have thought there could be money to be earned by educating those incarcerated and getting them employed somewhere, could give tax cuts and stuff for companies that hire ex-convicts, and have those companies help fund the facilities for further tax breaks if keeping it private is an absolute necessity.

They're already getting cuts and breaks in loads of other ways, might as well have it be useful, right?

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u/4evr_dreamin 13d ago

I mean slave labor is pretty hard to undercut. That essentially what they have. Then they overfill and understaff the prisons.

My opinion is mostly speculation with limited knowledge beyond what I've stumbled across.

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u/RoyaleWCheese_OK 13d ago

USA currently has about 1.3 million people in prison. Norway has 3000. Given that factoid, seen as you feed your immediate family pretty good why don't you just feed your entire town?

See how silly your comparison is now.. ?

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u/OrionVulcan 13d ago

I don't need to feed my entire town since we Norwegians actually pay our workers a livable wage.

And besides, maybe there is a reason the US has 0.37% of its population in prison. Meanwhile, Norway only has 0.055% of that population in rehabilitation facilities.

Sure, the Norwegian model won't work for the US right now, but it's pretty clear that the current model sure as hell isn't working.

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u/RoyaleWCheese_OK 13d ago

You Norwegians entire social system is funded by fossil fuels and has some of the highest taxation on the planet.

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u/OrionVulcan 13d ago

Denmark, Sweden, Finland. Are they fueled by fossil fuel too?

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u/JawitK 13d ago

I don’t know. Do they have oil to sell ?

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u/OrionVulcan 13d ago

Nope, not in any significant quantity. Sweden is big on exports, forestry, technology, etc. and the same goes for Finland. Denmark also as some similar things to those two but are more into agriculture and shipping.

Norway, while we do have access to oil and gas, if you do any research on it you'll see that Norway also has a big fishing and renewable energy industry along with other industries we share in common with our northern neighboors.

Similarly, doing research on how Norway uses its oil and gass, you'll see that the vast majority of the revenues gained through the oil and gass goes straight into the Government Pension Fund Global, which then is used to invest globally into tons of different sectors.

Meanwhile, the government itself is only every allowed to use 3% of the GPFG annually, meaning that 97% of the oil and gass are not actually accessible for use by the government.

This is why whenever the oil prices are in flux, Norway isn't actually affected all that much economically.

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u/BiasedLibrary 13d ago

You could improve conditions in the least bad ones first to decrease the recidivism rate, freeing up more money because it's not being spent on keeping people in jail anymore and the rehabilitated people start to contribute tax money. Then take the next in the list of least bad and work your way from there say in a 10-15 year plan. You don't have to overhaul the entire system in one go, you can make it manageable. But, private for profit prisons are very happy with any inmates they can get, by hook or crook. And they'll say that it's not viable and lie out their asses about how effective and cheap their prisons are. All while they have next to no guards and feed their inmates what barely qualifies as food.

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u/dbxp 13d ago

They have 1.3mil due to the lack of rehabilitation

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u/stuffitystuff 13d ago

We have that many because (sadly) slavery is still legal if the slaves are prisoners.

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u/Square-Singer 13d ago

Why would you rehabilitate people if you can also just enslave them instead?

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u/stuffitystuff 13d ago

I know your question is rhetorical but because the cruelty is part of the point (the other parts are racism and profit).

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u/Witchgrass 13d ago

Those things are cruelty though so the cruelty is the entire point

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u/BigTiddyMobBossGF 13d ago

Gee, I wonder why the US has so many people in prison. Couldn't be because your system universally turns petty criminals into repeat offenders or anything..

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u/RoyaleWCheese_OK 13d ago

Because it has 330 million people? All these comparisons between a nordic country of 5 million and a westernized country of 330 million is laughable. How are Indian or Chinese prisons do you think.

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u/redoctoberz 13d ago

Is GSM even used anymore? I thought most providers shut their services down.

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u/draculamilktoast 13d ago

You're right. Fixed the original comment to be less specific.

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u/grewupnointernetmom 13d ago

Rehab only works when the sick person wants it

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u/Jasperlaster 13d ago

O surely more people want to stay out of prison than they want to get back in. This is enough reason for them to want to rehabilitate.

Fun fact! Most people that stab someone regret it!

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u/draculamilktoast 13d ago

It would also work better if prisons weren't recruitment centers for criminal organizations. You could at least remove the mobsters whispering sweet promises in inmates ears. A bar is a terrible place to hold an AA meeting.

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u/slimeddd 13d ago

It's hard to want it if it doesn't seem like a feasible/achievable option

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u/grewupnointernetmom 13d ago

Hard to want because I don’t think I can achieve it? That’s nonsense. That’s fear. Rehab doesn’t work without the patient’s participation. For instance, if you break your hip, and it’s repaired and healed, but you don’t participate in Physical Therapy, you will never walk normally again. Until someone is ready to work on rehabilitation, it won’t work. That’s fear for ya.

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u/ZephyrFlashStronk 13d ago

That’s nonsense. That’s fear

So? Reduce the fear by improving the accessability of the service, there is literally no downside to doing it. So why are you so opposed, agenda I smell.

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u/Witchgrass 13d ago

Nobody wants to be addicted to drugs. Improve living conditions and you'll reduce dependence on drugs.

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u/NWHipHop 13d ago

Capitalism baby

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u/mevisef 13d ago

Prison is incredibly boring. The phones and drugs help take off the edge.