Judge A Country By How It Treats Its Prisoners

This essay sample essay on Judge A Country By How It Treats Its Prisoners offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion are provided below.

This says a lot about how Canada is governed; by the way Canada treats its prisoners, its impel to see that this is a country of forgiveness rather that punishment. Food Dostoevsky once stated “You can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners”.

This statement is correct as it can be seen that there in fact is a correlation between how well governed a society is. Countries with similar incentives for their prisoners as Canada, such as Sweden and its other Scandinavian neighbors tend to be more peaceful and have better international relations throughout the world.

The complete opposite can be said for those countries that don’t share the same or similar views as Canada, goes, this goes for countries such as Russia and North Korea.

Scandinavian countries have been known to be some of the best countries in the world to live in. With that being said, it comes as no surprise they also have some of the very best prisons with very little re-offense rates. Semolina Island has hosted an “open” prison since 1971. An open prison is one in which prisoners are able to go into neighboring towns to do a number of various things such as school and work (Larson, 2013).

You Can Judge A Society By The Way It Treats Its Prisoners

The prison houses around 95 men who are serving time for crimes such as assault, drug refraining, theft and even murder.

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Though these crimes are severe, all of these 95 men on track to be released. These men are able to have luxuries such as TV’s, sound system and even mini fridges in their cell blocks (Larson, 2013). Under electrical monitoring these men are able to visit with their families in the main land of Helsinki with no actual human supervision (Larson, 2013). The guards of the prison carry no weapons, pepper spray, or anything that could potentially cause bodily harm to one on the inmates (Larson, 2013).

To many this does not seem like the ideal prison as in most Mounties including the United States most people are used to prisons being unbreakable walls with barred cells and guards carrying weapons and ready to use them at any time they feel necessary. However this shares something in common with the minimum security facilities in Canada. Like in the open prison setting, the minimum security prisons house inmates in small little houses where inmates have responsibilities such as laundry, grocery shopping and managing a budget.

This is to give them the necessary skills that they will need in order to become a functioning member of society. Traditional prisons do not do much in the rehabilitation of criminal as they are expected to be kept in a cell where they are told when to eat, sleep, wake up and do the same cycle over again. Little to no responsibility is placed on the prisoner which correlates into higher re-offense rates. When these men and women are released back into a society they have been so detached fro for long periods of time, they are unable to properly function thus resulting them returning to crime.

The United States known for having some of the worst prisons in the world, to no surprise they also have one of the highest e-offense rates in the world also thus showing that traditional prisons with the barred cells and unbreakable walls are not the most effective means of reducing references. Many may wonder how it is even possible for open prisons to be opened and upheld in society. The answer to that would be because there is hardly ever debate on criminal justice policy in countries such as these (Larson, 2013).

The decisions are left to professionals that have done years of extensive research on how to best operate their prison system, thus resulting in the creation of this open prison concept (Larson, 2013). This method of selecting how exactly the prison system will be run seems to work quite well for the Scandinavians as they have had no problems with this concept in its 44 year existence. The inmates have not hurt anyone in the whole existence of the open prison therefore there is no reason to change a good thing. The treatment of inmates in Scandinavian countries shows just how much they actually care about their population as a whole.

Scandinavian countries are always among the top ranked countries to live in and this is partly due to thee great social programming. These countries are prime examples of true socialist democracies as the tax fund they collect are well allocated into taking care of the more important thing in the country’s. Great amounts of the tax payers money of these Scandinavian countries go into things such as education which is why countries like Norway and Finland are among the top 10 most educated in the world (McMillan, 2014).

Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are also among the few countries that provide a free post- secondary education in the whole world (McMillan, 2014). The ability effectively take care of bigger issues such as education and social funds and till be able to provide a desirable safe destination for those who fail to comply to the law shows just what a great nations Scandinavia has. This proves that Food Dostoevsky was indeed correct when he stated ‘You can judge a society by how they treat their prisoners”, However not all countries put such emphasis on treating their prisoners well as the nations Of Scandinavia do.

Though prisoners did fail to comply with the law this does not defeat the fact that they are human beings that are entitled to a certain standard of living. It is quite unfortunate that this is not the case in countries such as Russia and North Korea. Russia has 3 of the world’s worst prisons, the first Vladimir Central Prison (STATION, 2013). This prison it became infamous foot housing political prisoners during the Soviet Union era (STATION, 2013). Nowadays the overcrowded and disease-infested prison is known for the sadistic abuse that the inmates receive from the guards (STATION, 2013).

Prisoners are forced out of their cells, ordered to put their hands on the wall and given beatings so severe that they have to be dragged back to their cells, while others result in deaths (STATION, 2013). As if this isn’t enough, they re also ordered to beat each other. The second, Butyric Prison, this prison i: the largest central transit prison of Moscow is known for its brutality. It held 20,000 inmates during the Great Purge and thousands of them were executed after investigations (STATION, 2013).

Its administration also resorted to violence every time the inmates tried to protest against anything (STATION, 2013). Besides the problem of overcrowding, as there could be u to 100 inmates in cells intended only for 10 people, it is extremely hot in the summer and also has problems with epidemics such as AIDS and tuberculosis STATION, 2013). The third and worst of them all is PETA Island Prison, this prison is isolated by the White Lake and was built to hold the most dangerous: prisoners (STATION, 2013).

Though they never have to fear violence from the guards or their inmates, the restricted life of living in cages and in isolation, with no lavatories nor washing facilities surrounded by freezing cold water and snow, leaves the prisoners to deteriorate and become psychologically devastated (STATION, 2013). The conditions that the inmates of these prisons have to go through is treacherous, inmates in these prisons loud consider even some of the worst North American prisons soft compared to what they are put through in these prisons.

To further prove the validity Food Dostoevsky quotation, Russia has been known to be part of some undesirable business. The Ukraine situation were many innocent lives were lost due to Russia trying to take over their country for its resources, and their leader Vladimir Putting being part of a number of conspiracy theories in his now 15 years in charge of Russia (Taylor, 2012). This again prove that is very possible to judge a society by how it treats its prisoners, Russia treats its rissoles brutishly and through the situation with the Ukraine it can be seen that the government of Russia is simply brutish in general.

North Korea is home to the world worst prison called camp 22. The notorious Yearlong Concentration Camp, which has gained international attention in 2012 after its warden defected to China, was an isolated prison for political prisoners and has been in operation since 1965. A large compound that holds 50,000 prisoners, it was claimed that three generations of dissident families have been imprisoned there to completely remove the ‘roots’ (STATION, 2013).

In addition, the death camp has subjected inmates to extreme torture and human experimentation where they become lab rats for biological weapons like anthrax, bomb testing, and other brutalities (STATION, 2013). This prison shows just how sick the ruler of North Korea must be. To be aware of the testing of bomb and special gases use in warfare of people some of which are locked up for simple being related to someone who had once committed a crime is simple twisted. To no surprise North Korea is run by a dictator and may very well have the worst international relations in the world (fisher, 2014).

Everything with relation to Edie is censored, the citizens of North Korea are not able to leave without special authorization for their leader and the quality of life in their country is very poor (fisher, 2014). There is no freedom of speech therefore speaking out against the government can quite easily get one killed (fisher, 2014). North Korea has very little trading partner due to the disagreement in political matters with most countries which leads to poverty among the citizens of North Korea as they have little market to trade resources they are abundant in (fisher, 2014).

Again a correlation between the mistreatment of prisoners ND the mistreatment of people in society in general are evident in North Korea further proving that Food Dostoevsky words were very much valid. All and all, it is evident that societies can very well be judged by how well the treat their prisoners as stated by Food Dostoevsky. It has been seen that the better the prisoners in society are treated the less risk of them refunding. This is clearly evident in the Scandinavian open prison system which allows Inmates more freedom and results in greater success rate for those being rehabilitated back into society.

Also in correlation to the excellent orison system these Scandinavian countries are also able to put great emphasis on things such as social funds, healthcare and education in order better their society as a whole. Though there are some countries that treat prisoners like human being unfortunately there are still others that treat them like animals. Countries such as Russia and North Korea are home to some of the worst prisons in the world known for things such as the beating of inmates, overcrowding and other discrepancies. They are also home to some of the most none desirable societies in the world today also.