You must ask yourself the question what happens once they have done their time and are released back into society? If we treat them like animals and keep instilling to them that they are criminals they will just continue being criminals and continue to commit crimes. If we however try the opposite and treat them like people and show them that they are capable to live a normal life then chances are very good that they will live a fairly normal life after being released from prison and contribute to society instead of living off society.
But I agree completely, treat them like normal human beings AFTER they are done with penalty. Hell, even help them find a job. But I personally can't stand the fact, that prisoners are sometimes living better than "healthy" members of society and we are paying taxes for them. Im not necessarily saying, that harass prisoner verbaly, torture him or beat the living shit out of him (unless they are murderers, rapists or other scums that dont deserve to live anyway, torture these guys for all eternity, pay taxes for them but broadcast on TV / internet the things that are done to him to spread the message, worked very well in the past would also work now.)
In this case the US real problem is that they have an economy and social structure that is fucked up and breeds these kinds of people to begin with. Fix that and maybe nice prisons could work.
I dont think its solely US problem. I believe most of the "civilised" countries have this issue. But tommorrow I will find in my university library some books about the penalty system in sweden or norway, i'm really curious how their system works in resocialisation of the prisoners.
Good point! Alot of different factors play into this. First of all our prisons are not overly crowded, every inmate has their own cell and that means 12 hours every night when they are all alone.
And this is a good thing in my opinion, I might not agree with treating every prisoner good, but giving them personal space to at least bring down their agression is perfect solution.
In Poland the max penalty is lifetime. usually when you are sentenced you can leave the prison for good behaviour after serving half of the penalty, after 15 years if you are serving 25 years in prison or after 25 years if you are serving lifetime (unless judge decided otherwise during the trial). So there is always a hope for a prisoner, if hes willing to rehabilitate then he will be rewarded.
However, before 1989 there was a death penalty in poland, after communism ended the max penalty became 25 years in prison so all death penalties were converted to 25 years. Then in 1995 the max penalty became lifetime, but those fucks sentenced to die still had to serve 25 years because lex retro non agit rule. Some of them left the prison already and try to live normal lives. But some of them as soon as they left prison they killed or raped again. Its flawed and its bullshit. Even though everybody knew they would kill again there was no legal method to keep them in prison, so Norway (and maybe other countries as well) have a good system. Breivik might have been sentenced for 21 years in prison but I doubt he will leave it after that period.