As it turns out, this is more like a halfway house. Prisoners usually begin their term in a prison more like one we’d typically recognize – bars on the windows, locked in their cells. But the emphasis there is on successful reintegration into society.
As their sentence progresses, with good behavior, they can move into a facility more like this, where their freedoms are still restricted, but they can do things like network with people outside of prison, search for employment, cook and clean and look after themselves, and begin making plans for their reintegration into society.
As a result, Norway has one of the lowest rates of recidisvism. 20% as opposed to America’s 76%.
It seems like a shocking idea to us because of where and how we live, but apparently, Norwegians are addressing the real problem. When you take people who can’t function well in society, and then…help them do that?…they….do. Without the crime-ing.
Turns out treating people like human beings makes them more likely to act like human beings….
But won’t that incentivize some people to go back there since they get treated so well and get a nice room versus the streets?
If you read the post above, it says Norway’s recidivism rate – that is, the rate of released criminals who go on to be arrested again – is 20% versus 76% in the United States, so for the most part, no.
Isn’t that white-lined black cross on a red field flag a Nazi flag? Are we going to talk about how wonderful it is a Nazi gets a nice halfway house?
Ffs
Some people’s obsession with punishing people just… yikes
turns out that giving people who’ve demonstrated a poor ability to function in society… what amounts to a time-out and then phased-in and supported re-introduction to society where they’re provided with plenty of resources aimed at helping them learn to be functional social humans, where they don’t have to succeed at all of it right away under threat of homelessness and starvation…
…actually helps people function better in society than just punishing people for having a hard time with it, and making them learn on their own while actively putting barriers to that learning in their way and then also actively making it harder for them to even succeed at all than it was before they failed at it the first time.
and we’ve known this for decades, it’s not new, it’s just the prison system in the USA is mostly intended as legalized slavery rather than as any form of deterrent
so we are sold this bullshit idea that prison needs to be a cruel, brutal system to prevent more crime by our own media, to paint over the reality that it’s the exact opposide
i really love our generation’s joke trend of like, very calm but incredibly inflated hyperbole. like nobody says “oh she’s pretty” anymore we say “i would willingly let her murder me” and everyone is just like “lol same”
i think “same” is also great and “me,” i love when somebody reblogs a picture of like, a lizard, and just says “me” and we all know exactly what they mean. the current online Humor Discourse is remarkable because we trade exclusively in metaphors and implications and nobody ever, ever says anything outright and yet EVERYBODY understands each other perfectly
This reminds me of the time when I was on vacation with my family and we were hiking, and after using a rest stop, the conversation turned to the grossness of outhouses and port-a-potties, and I said that if I ever got splashback from a port-a-potty, “my soul would depart my body.” My parents found that hilarious, and my dad commented that my generation can be so clever with words bc he would only think to say something like “It would be disgusting” which doesn’t convey the sentiment nearly as well as “my soul would depart my body.”
i have to say, one thing mass effect 2 does exceedingly well is creating viscerally eerie atmospheres. when the normandy is attacked in the prologue, the game sends you through an open, damaged portion of your ship, giving you full view of the debris and the planet you’re about to crash into. the only sound is that of your breathing.
another example is how the center of the Normandy SR2, on the main crew deck, is a corridor holding what look like escape or sleeper pods. hell, the corridor they’re in is full of eerie red light. it gives the ship, and the player, a looming reminder that danger is always right around the corner, and everyone knows that any moment may be their last.
later on, when the normandy’s crew is kidnapped by the collectors, shepard comes out into the CIC and it’s just… quiet. the deck is empty, and the warm, everpresent sound of the crew’s chatter is just… gone. the only sound is that of the Normandy itself. all that’s left is the low, rumbling hum, and the occasional clatter or whoosh. it’s cold, and empty
ATTENTION ZINE CREATORS, ARTISTS, AND ANYONE WHOSE BUSINESS UTILIZES PRE-ORDERS AND PAYPAL
As of June 15th, 2018, PayPal has changed their user policy with little to no fanfare at all in ways that could literally destroy your business. I’m going to say this as plainly as possible:
DO NOT USE PAYPAL AT ALL IF POSSIBLE.
I know this is a lot to ask, especially since PayPal is the most globally accepted digital tender, but unless you want to lose access to your funds for six months and PayPal possibly forever, you need to read this.
PayPal Business accounts are now being flagged, locked, and completely shut down if:
1. If you haven’t shipping anything within 21 days of your first transaction
2. You’ve received more than 200 orders
and/or
3. You’ve made an excess of $20,000 (USD)
If this happens to you, you will not be able to access your money for up to six months. PayPal is NOT willing to work with you, all they will say is there’s nothing they can do, they’re cutting business ties, and offer you the MAILING address of their legal department. That’s right, you can’t even get a direct line to these people, they’re just going to tank your business by dicking around with your money for six months. Your only options are to:
1. Wait six months and frustrate customers, and by-proxy tarnish your reputation.
2. Refund everyone, possibly lose their business, and tarnish your reputation.
3. Pursue the matter legally, which will likely take longer than six months anyway, not to mention cost money out of pocket.
IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY USING A PAYPAL ACCOUNT FOR PRE-ORDERS, GET OUT NOW. Deposit your funds and part ways with PayPal as a tender, this is not a battle they’re willing to let you win.
Thankfully most of my stuff is filtered through other sites first but fucking here we go again.
It used to be you could get around this by marking your stuff as digital goods that dont need shipment notification but I dunno if that’ll work anymore. All I know is paypal has been making it increasingly difficult for a lot of artists and creators lately and it’s a logistical nightmare for a lot of us.
I need to finish my storefront.
Why are they doing this? It seems to make their service clumsy and unusable. Is Paypal drunk and dumped so badly they turned mean??
It’s likely another way to try and stop sex workers or adult content creators from using their services.
It started out with “you can’t use a stage name unless you have a business account”. Which means you get a chunk of your money taken as a processing fee, but get to use a “business” name instead of your real name AND LOCATION, cause that’s a thing they were forcing you to post too unless you upgraded.
People used to tell me all the time when they put a tip in my tip jar that it was telling them my real name and the city I lived in, so eventually I bit the bullet and upgraded to avoid that. (Which is why ko-fi was/is so great, because it’s essentially a paypal wrapper that lets you use the service while not revealing your identity and location.)
But they’ve been making it increasingly harder and harder to run an online business for anyone who doesn’t ship physical items that can be tracked. Like part of it is likely to ensure that customers are getting what they paid for, but when it comes so quickly on the heels of numerous policy updates regarding sex work and adult content, it is undoubtedly linked to making it more difficult for those people to use their services.
Patreon might be doing my head in with their site constantly breaking, and they fuck up on communication issues a lot, but this is largely why they changed who they do their payment processing with, to avoid paypals “no naughty business” policies. They still use paypal and Stripe, but they moved their handler to other countries with less draconian laws, and broadened to other payment processors because of this kind of thing.
When I get my own site up, I will not be using paypal, which sucks cause everyone uses paypal. But I also cannot abide their business practices and ethics. Or the apparent lack thereof.
I contacted Paypal TODAY so if you guys could spread this around so people that use paypal would know that’d be great!
So when you do digital goods you go to “TRACKING INFORMATION” and then select “ORDER PROCESSED” and you’ll be fine and won’t get into trouble!
reblogging for the last part to save a life cuz I was getting the “shipping info” stuff added to my digital commissions and i just ignored it cuz it wasn’t relatvent but i went through and updated it to “order processed”
Captain-Radioactive-Mentality 