goodtimecharliehorse

You said you're working with two prisons in California. Are these minimum security prisons with primarily non-violent offenders, or are you trying to work with violent gang members as well?

How do Norwegian citizens feel about having convicted criminals in the workplace? In the US most companies do a background check on prospective employees and felony convictions are a barrier to employment in many cases. Returning convicted criminals to gainful employment really depends on the culture of the outside world. Lack of employability really restricts a former inmate to a life of crime.

How would you deal with the type of "Fight or die" culture that pulls non-violent offenders into prison gangs for self defense? That issue is pretty much universal in the US prison systems. I've always held that putting a burglar in the general population of a prison with violent lifers just forces the non-violent criminal to evolve into a more dangerous criminal.

How do Norwegian sentencing standards compare to US standards? There are so many people in the US prison system that constant monitoring of individual inmates would be cost prohibitive. Wouldn't alternative sentencing for non-violent criminals help ease the burden on the system to allow for that level of supervision? If so, wouldn't it be more economically feasible to work on decreasing the population of mainstream prisons before trying to adopt your techniques? Applying your strategies to overcrowded and racially unbalanced prisons seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

I agree. Crime is a huge industry in the US. A huge poorly run industry.