The reason why American prisons carry a shit reputation is due to the big issue regarding their prison industrial complex, meaning it’s more akin to a private firm (some contractor manages the prison monetizing every aspect) than a state owned government insitution.
In most nations: the prisons are owned and operated by the judiciary or a justice department (which both are governmental entities). But NOT in America it seems, as there are cases of prisons profiting off inmates whilst treating them like a animal confined to a cage.
The corruption in that is ridiculous from:
- Guards are overprotected (military gear) in prison
- Guards being handed military grade weaponry (in jail!)
- Guards accept bribes (cash) from some third party
- Inmates fed slop (not made for human consumption)
- No effort on rehabilitating the inmates at all
- Monetize family visitations by the hour or minute
- Officials are bribed by those contractors to stay silent
It plays a key reason as to why their recidivism rate is high: the inmates who served their time just commit crime again right after they are on the street, then return back to prison again (it’s a cycle). There’s zero effort on trying to make them readjust back to society.
There’s a case were a guy was beaten to death in a holding cell by the GUARDS despite him begging for medical attention as he’s peeing blood and vomiting due to his illness. His family sued the police as what they did to him is unforgivable.
It’s bad for ex-cons: no jobs are willing to hire someone with a record, or openly display prejudice. Even for those who were in jail for minor offenses (for them, the thought of “being behind bars” makes them sick) rather than knowing their full circumstances.
Now, in terms of prisons in your (EU) country:
- How well are they funded to maintain it’s upkeep?
- How does society view ex-cons in your country?
- How are inmates treated at prisons in your country?
- What is the overall recidivism rate in your country?
- Who owns & operates the prisons in your country?
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The UK is shit and full of private prisons. It’s nowhere near as bad as the US, but it seems to be trying its best to change that.
Too sleepy to elaborate, but here’s a video for more info
Germany here:
Penal sancrions against a person are a heavy violation of a persons fundamental constitutional rights. Therefore only the state mandated by the people may, on the grounds of a legal basis, imprison someone. That includes the prison itself. The states all have to facilitate their own prisoners. As in the prisoner is usually kept in the same state that they were sentenced in. The funding is decided annually by the parliament of the state. As an action by the state it can be challenged in court and the states need to have a minimum of care given to each prisoner. After all their freedom is taken away for a period of time nothing else.
Prison records are not public, society rarele gets to know if someone had been imprisoned. Exemptions are jobs that require a clear record, leakage of the name before sentencing etc. News outlets may not publish the full name nor a picture of the face of the prisoner. In fact every prisoner has a constitutional right to a chance of a normal life after prison. I have no personal experience if that actually works out.
While I have yet heard of personal experiences of German prisons, I have heard of quite a few eastern europeans that would rather be sentenced in Germany than in their home country. There have been quite a few scandals however and investigations didn’t seem too thorough.
I don’t know the the recidivism rate by heart. It’s however inadvisable to use that as any kind of factor as it’s too dependent on the crime commited, age and sex of the criminal, famiöy background etc.
What has been privatized sporadically is detention facitilies for “guilt-less”-criminals, i.e. people that suffered at the time of the crime and still suffer from mental disorders that affect the cognition of action and guilt. Schizophrenia and the like. States that privatized these facilities had to pass a very detailed law on the handling of those patients. The general well being as well as a chance to be set free has to be looked at annually by external psychiatrists as well as a judge.
Generally speaking I’d say Germany has a decent penal system. But, its theoratical focus on resocialization is not seen in high regard in the general population for some of the more heinous crimes (as well as tied to general racism).
Good write up!
You stressed already that imprisonment legally is seen as an infringement on your rights. Just adding a little interesting fact to that:
A prison break is not illegal per se in Germany. The urge for freedom is regarded as one of the most basic human urges.
So the act of escaping from prison carries no additional punishment, but crimes you commit pursuing that goal, do. For example breaking a window, attacking someone, stealing a key will get punished normally and will be added to your sentence. But if you manage to escape without committing any crimes you’ll just have to finish your original sentence (if caught obviously).
As a note.
US is a Federal system. There are Federal prisons run by the US government, and State prisons run by the individual states, and local/county jails run by municipalities.
Prison conditions can vary wildly from one jurisdiction to another.
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for reference, the prison population of sweden (as of october 2023) is around 7 000 people, or 0.07% of the population, with another 10 000 “beginning” a sentence that year. about 10% of convictions result in incarceration, and of those (as far as i understand the numbers) most are less than a year. note also that the prison population has risen and continues to rise sharply in the previous 10 years, up from 4 000 in 2016.
funding and upkeep
the prison and probation service (Kriminalvården) gets 20% of the funding allocated to the judiciary, which for 2026 is expected to be 78 billion kronor, making the service’s budget take up 1.03% of the total expenses of the state.
ex-cons
i don’t know any ex-cons, but i know of some. unless they are repeat offenders or actively harming people it’s usually not brought up. rehabilitation has historically worked well since crime is traditionally a function of needs. for more serious cases where there’s credible evidence of medical grounds for the criminal activity there is a process for institutional care (rättspsykiatrisk vård).
treatment of inmates
nordic prisons are pretty well-known for being humane, and sweden has historically been no exception. inmates tend to get their own rooms with bed, furniture and enclosed toilet, most prisons have open wings so that inmates can socialise and cook in communal kitchens, and so on. however, swedish prisons are currently going through somewhat of a crisis due to the violent organised crime wave that we’ve had going on for the past five years. single-occupancy rooms are being used by multiple inmates, rehabilitation is taking a backseat to simply keeping the prisons running, guards are being threatened more often, and so on. we’re currently building out our high-security facilities to mitigate this but in the mean time the lower-security facilites are picking up the slack, which they are not equipped to do. we’re trying to expand the number of prison spaces from 9 000 to 27 000 by 2033. time will tell how this situation affects the system in the long run. i’m not positive.
recidivism
according to the national council for crime prevention (brå), the recidivism rate for people first found guilty of a crime in 2017 was 25%, 35%, and 41% after one, two, and three years respectively. men (82% of the data) were much more likely (44%) than women (30%) to be repeat offenders after three years. The most common crime was possession of narcotics, consisting 54% of cases. worth mentioning is that sweden has an extremely strict narcotics policy.
ownership
the prison and probation service (kriminalvården) owns and operates all domestic incarceration facilities, including pre-trial ones. the idea has been floated to rent space in facilities internationally to handle the rapidly ballooning prison population, but i don’t know if that’s gotten anywhere.
