HOW TO ELIMINATE OVERCROWDING IN OUR PRISONS

All we have to do is to adopt the Indonesian concept of ‘rehabilitation’ and change our laws to allow for the release of inmates once they are considered rehabilitated

In Indonesia, a prisoner is considered rehabilitated if he admits guilt and apologizes in public for having committed the offense, shows remorse, and behaves himself in prison.

Now if we just adopted the Indonesian rehabilitation concept and changed our laws to allow for the release of inmates once they are considered rehabilitated, there would be no overcrowding and we could probably shut down two-thirds of our prisons.

Seriously though, here from Dorina Lisson is some interesting information about prison systems other than our own:

PRISON SYSTEMS AROUND THE WORLD
By Dorina Lisson

In some countries, as opposed to the United States, prisons are merely like small cities within walls. The rules and regulations differ from country to country. Prison authorities and officers use their discretion with certain prisoners. There is often corruption within many prisons with impunity. eg. bribes for day release, special favors/requests, secret conjugal visits, early release, etc. At times, prisons become overcrowded and many prisoners receive unexpected clemency and are released. All this is rampant mostly in Asian prisons.

Norway has the most humane and lenient prison sentences. European countries and Australia are not far behind. As for South American prisons, they are a joke - planned escapes are common.

Indonesia

A prisoner in Indonesia is considered 'rehabilitated' if he/she admits guilt, shows remorse, is not troublesome whilst in prison, and more importantly apologizes in public of their wrongful deeds. Indonesian authorities despise people who claim to be not guilty of the crime. Most of the time, if a prisoner apologizes for the crime they are forgiven and treated more humanely whilst serving time.

Sharia

Under Islamic/sharia laws, if the victim of crime or the family members forgive the offender he/she cannot be executed. Middle-Eastern prisons are the most inhumane and cruel.

Australia

There are approximately 20 prisoners in Australia serving life without parole. Of course, there is the odd heinous crime committed, but in 90 percent of all homicides the victim and offender are known to each other. The homicide rate per capita, in Australia has remained stable for the last two decades - average of 360 nationally per year.

Prisoners that are reaching the end of their sentence are always given either day leave, weekend leave, a few hours outing with a counselor, study leave, or day work leave. If they stuff-up, they know they will end up in maximum security.

Some prisoners have been given permission to go shopping for toys for their children (escorted by plain-clothed prison staff). Sometimes a prisoner needs to be handcuffed if deemed unpredictable, but the public doesn't notice at all - a garment of some sort covers the cuffs.

In Australia, an offender can be sentenced to prison and released on 'Warden's Pleasure'.