Lawyer exposes US officials to European practices

[Minor activist]

But what struck Specter most was that the prisoners were treated differently, too. “They still regarded the people in prison as members of the community who were going to return to the community,” he says. “That has a whole bunch of implications.”

Participants in Specter’s program learn about the principles of normality—the idea that life on the inside should be as similar to life on the outside as possible—and dynamic security, which is based on interpersonal relationships between guards and inmates.
In Norway, correctional officers are trained to de-escalate potential conflicts, Ekhaugen says. Each officer is assigned to oversee no more than four inmates and make conscious efforts to engage with those inmates on a human level, including participating in recreational activities.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/a...ation_specter/


US C/Os get trained to keep their distance from inmates, and the training material I've seen has lots of case studies of harmless-looking interaction and compassion turning into really bad situations like helping run the inmate's drug business. I wonder why it works in Europe, if it does.



That one-to-four ratio must change everything about how everyone acts.

[Doinaight]

We had some guards that showed us respect without crossing that line and bringing in contraband. Majority of the time it makes their job easier as when they show us respect for the most part it is shown back.

[Minor activist]

Were they showing respect while keeping an emotional distance? That's a third way between treating people like garbage and what they're doing in Europe with the guards playing sports with the inmates and being expected to make personal connections.