I saw a program on prisons in Finland. They have 'Open' (unsecured) prisons, rooms like motels and a policy of short sentences. All inmates work or are in education programs. Their imprisonment rate has dropped from one of the highest to one of the lowest, after 50 years of this.
Taking it at face value, the policies appear to work.
But would it work in New Zealand? I don't know Finland and have only meet a few Finns, but I'm picking their culture is not like ours. I'm thinking the Finnish crims are the bottom end of a fairly homogeneous society and are not too far removed from Joe Average. Unlike here, where most come from a distinctive lowlife underclass.
What I do know is that the current crop of NZ's criminals would only abuse such a softly-softly approach. They do not understand the carrot, only the stick. Kindness equates to weakness and the weak are to be stood over.
I would like to know more about how and why this works in Finland.
3 comments:
A bit more information:
http://www.vankeinhoito.fi/16940.htm
It is my observation that countries with a homogenous society, Finland for e.g. have a low rate of crime. While countries with an unhomogenous society, NZ (maori pacific island and european) the US (blacks hispanic and european) and the UK (blacks asians and europeans) have a corresponding high rate of crime.
The manner in which the Finns treat their criminals is not therefore the reason for their low level of criminal offending, a low level of criminal offending is a feature of an homogenous society.
We pay solo mothers to have kids in this country, some of these mothers I wouldn't let look after my cat. What kind of crazy mixed up kids do they raise? No wonder we have so many nut cases in prisons.
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