Jay Evensen’s timely article about the new prison reminded me to look at the Norwegian prison system that rehabilitates 80 percent of their prisoners. Since we will be starting our new prison at square one, I wanted to know if we are looking at better ways for the prison to rehabilitate prisoners so that they can get the help, both education and treatment, that they need to become good citizens upon their release. This would require different building plans than we have used in the past. I think that North Dakota has done this and it is proving successful so far.
I know that their approach is radically different from ours and would require a very different mindset, but it seems to work. The old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply here. Our prison systems are broke ... let’s fix them.
Shirley Britsch
Orem