Where To Invade Next

The Most Dangerous Game is a thriller in which the main character, Rainsford, is being hunted down in the jungle by the cruel General Zaroff. High Noon is a 1800's western story in which the main character, Will Kane, is a sherif and has to fight for his life against a thief by the name of Frank Mitchell. These two books sound like they are completely different. But actually, they are more similar that different. The mains characters from each story share a lot in common. The themes both show violence and strength throughout the book. The setting is completely different though. Here are some of the reasons why these two books share some similarities but one main difference.

While reading the How to End Mass Incarceration article and just thinking about the general conversations surrounding prison abolition, I thought a lot about why we tend to compare the United States to Scandinavian countries. Lancaster states at the end of the article that, “We should strive not for pie-in-the-sky imaginings but for working models already achieved in Scandinavian and other social democracies.” The author continues to argue that prison abolitionists are “out on a limb” and that their arguments are “implausible.” The author even goes as far to say that “abolitionism promises a heaven-on-earth that will never come to pass.” As a solution, the author suggests that we as the United States, need to look at examples of more effective and more progressive alternatives that have been successful elsewhere, like Scandinavia.

Sterbenz, Christina. “Why Norway’s Prison System Is so Successful.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 11 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

“America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, outstripping even Russia, Cuba, Rwanda, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Though America is home to only about one-twentieth of the world’s population, we house almost a quarter of the world’s prisoner” (Bibas, 2015). ​“President Obama insisted that “the real reason our prison population is so high” is that

Established in 1930 under the Hoover administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs was a program created to provide aid and support for the returning military personnel as they reassimilated into civilian life and recovered from the harsh realities of combat. For several years, the organization had been an effective and prolific service that aided millions of soldiers in various ways. In more recent years however, the organization has been gradually slipping. The VA has been involved with a number of scandals revealing gross misconduct and oversights that resulted in the prolonged suffering and even the deaths of many veterans. These continued missteps brought to light several issues and points in which the organization was lacking in

Standardized testing has become something of a norm under the No Child Left Behind Act. It has left the student and teacher responsible in having high test scores and has forced teachers to teach directly by the curriculum. What standardized testing does do is help develop memory, but at the cost of creativity (Emanuel 9-10). This is the problem behind standardized testing is that it has become linear and obsolete (Emanuel 9-10). It has been noticed by many for example Sir Ken Robinson said,” Testing in principal is a logical way of measuring student knowledge”, but he continues by saying that, “In practice it creates a very dry learning environment”. This shows that the No Child Left Behind Act and standardized testing is not working,

Higher education, it is vital for success, a better future, and the key to many opportunities. Education is the key that unlocked and unlocks infinite possibilities for the human kind through numerous generations of trial and error. Education has always been about bettering oneself and pushing oneself to better society. To discover new things for the good of human kind. Without education the world would not have many of its simple technologies and inventions that have become necessities for human life.

According to 10 Things, Public Education In America Is Getting Right “It Is Inclusive - School is available to all American “school-age” citizens. It’s not like that everywhere else in the world.” Our schools in America can be found anywhere else it available to every in America. This helps schools in growth and how much the government pays the to build up they schools. Also how many students depends on how much they get paid. According to the same article “Funding -This is America, and if there’s one thing Americans can do it's spending money. We fund education annually to the tune of a projected $821 billion in 2013. If it can be bought (it can’t), we’ll figure it out.” We can afford it, unlike other counties. If it helps we can get it one way or other. We have the power and money to do it.Money is not any issue for us but for many it is that's why we are different. According to the same article “It’s difficult to say what it’s like planet-wide so it very well not be a strength of American schools, but the relationships between teachers and students in many of the top classrooms in the United States is very strong, with teachers acting as mentors, guides, content experts, and compasses to navigate our increasingly crazy world.” The students are close with the teachers. Also, the school never fails the student. The student can get this help and succeed.This helps out our future and teacher do not give up on

Teachers are expected to teach the students, so the test scores increase each time the test is taken. However, not every student is a great test taker, which then causes a negative reflection upon the teacher in charge of preparing the student. These results also impact the school, as they do not get funding if their students perform poorly on certain standardized tests. In school, students are taught from a young age that school should be enjoyable, they should be creative, innovative, and find a love for learning. Unfortunately, standardized tests, are not equipped to measure the above mentioned ways of learning..

..no fences, no bars on the windows, no detention sash. Guards do not wear uniforms..the buildings look like a motel. Inmates may use telephones to call anyone anytime, they have keys to their own individual rooms, they have their own money, and they wear their own clothes. There are no restrictions on hours of watching television or visiting in the day rooms or

Many believe the country’s rehabilitation-based approach to prison has helped prevent re-entry (Breivik 2016). Modern, cheerful, quiet and peaceful, Halden Prison in Norway is known as one of the most humane prisons in the world. The sole goal of Halden is rehabilitation, and to that end, no expense is spared on art to create a beautiful and inspiring atmosphere, bright and airy cells with enclosed ensuites, bar-free windows, excellent workout facilities, a peaceful treed yard with cheese boards and benches, and other such niceties. The prison guards are trained to motivate, not intimidate inmates, and robust vocational programming, on-site medical and paramedical facilities keep the prisoner’s bodies and minds in good working order (Breivik 2016). Nordic countries in general have an illustrative track record when it comes to minimizing the number of people who enter and re-enter their prisons.

Prison in America has long been known to be a system of punishment as opposed to a rehabilitative program, and this form of incarceration is affecting the rates of recidivism in the states. A comprehensive average of about 59% of incarcerated Americans return to prison within two years (Fazel 2015). Policies within American prisons are strict, and misconduct of any sort has the possibility of being punished by “disciplinary action”. Schedules conducted by guards, which impose scheduled bathing, meals, recreation, and work hours, take away the freedom for prisoners to perform such tasks at their own leisure. In comparison, only 20% of incarcerated citizens in Norwegian prisons become re-incarcerated within two years; Iceland

I chose to study Norway’s prison policy because I have heard that Norway has the most humane prisons in the world and I wished to research what that meant and how successful those humane policies really are. Norway is worth looking at because their recidivism rate is very low, suggesting that their prison policy is successful. According to the World Prison Brief, Institute for Criminal Policy Research, in 2016, the incarceration rate in Norway was 74 per 100,000 inhabitants, based on an estimated national population of 5.25 million, resulting in a total prison population of 3,874; the occupancy level of their prisons is 89.9%. Their low incarceration rate is, in part, contributed to by that Norway does not subject convicts to long stays in prison. In fact, the average

Prison is the most severe type of punishment that America institutes. It is a physical and psychological attack on the prisoner. It affects the prisoners’ material possessions because they can earn little or no income while incarcerated, they may lose their job, and spend their life savings. It affects the prisoner’s body because he or she is under the control of others and very little freedom exists for him or her.

With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In this paper, we will first look at what the prison system in America is like and what we can do to improve upon our prison system. Then, we will also look at the Finland prison systems and see if we can learn anything from them, since they have one of the lowest incarceration and crime rate in the world. We will then look at reforming our prison system or abolishing it. Finally, we will investigate other punishment alternatives other than the prison system that we could use.