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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe stunningly simple idea that could change solitary confinement as we know it
The drawing and its implications would ultimately spark a program that has infiltrated some of the most impenetrable prisons in the nation, attracted international attention, and earned a spot on TIME Magazines list of best inventions. Called the Nature Imagery Project, it transports the soothing elements of nature into supermax prisons to help ease the psychological stress of solitary confinement.
The project is rooted in an idea that even the most static entities like trees, like inmates in solitary confinement have the capacity for change. Prisoners seem to be these people who will never change, said the biologist, Nalini Nadkarni, a professor at the University of Utah. They will always be violent, always a burden on society. But if we can change our perspective, we can see that people can move even if they seem stuck.
A general consensus has emerged among politicians, academics and prison officials that something is seriously wrong with the way we isolate tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement. But solutions to this seemingly intractable problem have been in short supply. Solitary confinement remains one of the most widely-used tools to punish or protect inmates, even amid overwhelming evidence linking isolation to mental illness and suicide.
Whole article by Terrence McCoy here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/10/12/the-stunningly-simple-idea-that-could-change-solitary-confinement-as-we-know-it/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_optimist
x-posted from Good Reads
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)I suspect a good many inmates have never experience nature in their lives. One hopes they can carry the experience with them when they leave.
FSogol
(45,519 posts)hunter
(38,325 posts)... but plants have to be more complex, even more intelligent than animals, because they can't simply run away from trouble.
But I'm not sure about the analogy. Everything about the prison system sucks.
Authoritarian punishment is a useless tool for behavioral modification. It can only make a relationship worse.
Punishing a kid, or a dog, or even someone who is not fit to live in free society without some kind of supervision, is about as useful as punishing a potted plant. Or maybe worse. A "bad" potted plant won't bite you back, unless maybe they are able to conjure up some kind of anti-human toxin we don't know about yet... so maybe be nice to your houseplants.
But weeds and bacteria and insect pests sure as hell will make our human life miserable as we eventually end up with herbicide, antibiotic, or insecticide resistant adversaries. Just as with using punishment you end up with punishment-resistant children, criminals, dogs, horses, etc.
People laugh at my "organic" approach to life, my claims that I've taught the ants to stay out of my kitchen, or that I rely on the little birds to eat all the aphids in my garden, and the European starlings to eat the European snails and slugs, and the house spiders to eat the flies.
But it really does work. If you want cockroaches, fleas, or aphids, the most obnoxious pests, then go ahead, use plenty of insecticides. It kills off their competition.
If you want kids who hate you, or worse, are dull and subservient to you and all other so-called "authority," then punish them.
If you want violent bloodthirsty drug gangs, then support the drug warriors.
If you want violent criminals, then hire violent cops and prison guards.
You get back what you give.
ladyVet
(1,587 posts)dembotoz
(16,825 posts)nature fish, scenery all that crap.
sorta reminded me of the death chamber scene from Soylent Green...
not sure if this hospital is that innovative...perhaps the theory made the leap from healthcare to corrections
which is good