I am a felon for most of you the answer
is no because you’re only relying on
what you can see with your eyes but
behind what we can visually see is a
story in 2011 my best friend overdosed
on heroin and died in my father’s
basement about seven months later I was
arrested in connection with his death
because I was a passenger in the vehicle
when he purchased the drugs I spent
about four months in county jail
awaiting a bond reduction hearing and
during that time I witnessed many and
justices we were locked down for days
because of understaffing dental care
amounted to the pulling of teeth and
many of the women that I was
incarcerated with had been in jail for
almost a year because their public
defender just couldn’t devote enough
time to their case it was these in
justices along with what occurred in the
courtroom during my case that solidified
my commitment to American prison reform
I started to research prison systems and
over time I realized that not all
countries follow the same model I just
returned from field research in Norway
in Finland where I had the pleasure of
touring some of their prisons which by
the way I never thought would come out
of my mouth but what I learned open both
my mind and my eyes to a multitude of
possibilities there are two big
differences between the Nordic system
and the American way of doing things
and those are the principle of normality
and the role of the prison guard so
we’ll start with the principle of
normality
since most inmates are going to be
re-entering society at some point in
time they set the prisons up to be as
much like the outside world as humanly
possible behind me Halden
maximum-security prison they don’t have
any bars on their doors each living unit
has a common living space and a kitchen
and each of the rooms or cells looks
more like a dorm room with its own
window
desk and its own bathroom also each of
the inmates retains the civil rights
that they entered with and these civil
rights include the right to education
health care and voting secondly the role
of the prison guard in Norway a prison
guard is called a contact officer and
each contact officer is assigned two to
three inmates that they are personally
responsible for kind of like a social
worker but Jenny how did they dispel
violence you may ask well they do it
through prevention and how do they do
that well they do it through
communication yes you heard me correctly
they actually talked to the inmates as
if they’re human beings havel concept
don’t you think when you have a close
relationship with another person you can
tell when their emotions are running a
little high or if they maybe just need
to chill out for a little bit you can
talk to them before anything explosive
happens interestingly Halden
maximum-security prison does have a
restraint bed but in the eight years
this prison has been in operation they
haven’t had to use it one time all
because of communication it is time for
us to open our eyes to the fact that we
have to reform our prison systems it is
completely unacceptable for a country as
well-developed and supposedly
progressive as the United States of
America to have a prison system that is
so grossly abusive and ineffective
as long as we continue our punitive
approach to prison we will continue to
turn out toxicity it is just as simple
as that it’s time for a change it’s time
for us to come to our senses thank you you