If only Finland weren’t so darn cold! The NY Times has an article about Finland’s “kinder, gentler” prisons (Finnish Prisons: No Gates or Armed Guards), where prison is more like a dorm than Attica. (I suspect, in fact, that it is less like a prison than some of our dorms on campus, which have been voted the worst in the nation.) And–surprise–it works. Why? Because there is a consensus that they should trust experts, a culture that does not expect the state to be confrontational, and a political environment that does not scapegoat the family.
Finished
If only Finland weren’t so darn cold! The NY Times has an article about Finland’s “kinder, gentler” prisons (Finnish Prisons: No Gates or Armed Guards), where prison is more like a dorm than Attica. (I suspect, in fact, that it is less like a prison than some of our dorms on campus, which have been voted the worst in the nation.) And–surprise–it works. Why? Because there is a consensus that they should trust experts, a culture that does not expect the state to be confrontational, and a political environment that does not scapegoat the family.
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