Prisoners deserve chance at new life

Prison isn’t a joke. People do bad things, so they deserve to be taken away from the world, but is our treatment of them in prison fair?

In Norway, they are focused on getting their prisoners back to civilization, rather than stripping away all of their humanity. Not only do they have no death penalty, but there are also no life sentences. This means that every one of their prisoners will eventually be back on the streets and therefore, they want to make sure that these people are ready and able to re-enter society at some point.

This causes the Norway prison experience to be one that is much less harsh than the United States. Including the maximum security prisons, most prisoners have keys to their cells, as well as access to music studios and kitchens. The people in Norway believe that taking criminals away from their families is punishment enough.

In a film by Michael Moore, he asks a man whose daughter was killed whether he thought the man deserved to die. The man answered, “No, if I wanted that, I would be as bad as him.” This shows how kind Norway is and how genuinely they want to help rehabilitate criminals, rather than take away their life. We can be more like Norway by getting rid of our life sentences and death penalties as well as making prison a humane experience.

This story was originally published December 25, 2016 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Prisoners deserve chance at new life."