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Germany: Low Crime, Clean Prisons, Lessons for America | Jeff Rosen | TEDxMountainViewHighSchool

Germany: Low Crime, Clean Prisons, Lessons for America | Jeff Rosen | TEDxMountainViewHighSchool on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2017–2022.

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Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen explains in a TEDx talk why Germany has lower crime and far fewer prisoners than the US, and what American criminal justice could learn from German prisons.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a comparison of German rehabilitative prisons with American retributive justice, backed by statistics.

people recommended it
3
separate months
4
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2017–2022
“the whole talk is rather worthwhile to watch”
— freeflight, Dec 2020, in “In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)”

What HN commenters said

9 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

Lev1aAug 2022Strongly recommends

On the topic of prison systems in America vs. the civilized world, this is absolutely worth a watch: ▶ this video

in “At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt” · View on HN

Lev1aMay 2021Recommends

Or this talk about one of Denmarks neighbours (Germany) by an American, Jewish, (grand-)son of Holocaust survivors visiting a German prison with a bunch of other Americans ("60 Minutes" reporter, some Governor, a DA, a convicted murderer etc.). A bunch of stats and comparisons to underline the effects of different prison systems: ▶ this video And the related segment from "60 Minutes": [link]

in “Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years in prison” · View on HN

freeflightDec 2020Recommends

It's debatable if the police state was actually responsible for that drop in crime. Afaik Canada saw a comparable drop in crime, over the same time-period, without starting to mass incarcerate people [0] [0] ▶ this video (Relevant stats and discussion start around 6:45, but the whole talk is rather worthwhile to watch)

in “In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)” · View on HN

okketMay 2017Recommends

I'd recommend to watch this talk about the German prison system from an American perspective. The main point is the difference between European resocialization and US retributive justice. Although this may show the bright sides here in Germany a little bit too bright, they do exist. ▶ this video

in “Topics in Core Mathematics at Graterford Prison” · View on HN

freeflightDec 2021Cites it

When you design for the "edge cases" you end up with a bunch of Supermaxes were people vegitate 23 hours a day in solitary, which is btw commonly considered torture [0] Maybe the goal shouldn't be to design for "unchecked edge cases to apply maximum punishment" but rather a fundamental change in US prison and incarceration policies [1] [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “The American prison system’s war on reading” · View on HN

freeflightNov 2021Cites it

> That social stigma will not work in big, diverse and marred by identity politics countries like the US or even Canada (in my opinion). The social system analogue to the US is not Canada, Canada's policies in that regard are way more resembling of European systems than the US's, that applies not only to welfare systems, but also crime and incarceration [0]. As such, Canada is very much an example of how at least part of these policies can also work in North America, even with its allegedly exceptional scale and diversity. [0] ▶ this video

in “Without parental leave I might be dead” · View on HN

Show 3 more comments
freeflightMay 2021Cites it

> He stated "modern policing," which I would guess is since the 1980s and the drug war, then 9/11. All this is fairly new, and started within my lifetime. This is "normal" to the younger generation, but it's horrifies me. Yup, the US incarceration rate started rising to these insane current day levels around the 1980s [0] Interestingly enough, the incarceration rate kept rising even while crime was going down, but crime going down wasn't a US exclusive phenomena, Canada saw the same trend without mass incarcerating people. [1] [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “A police dog who cried drugs at every traffic stop” · View on HN

freeflightJun 2020Cites it

> I think every society with lower crime has significantly smaller police brutality Crime-rates do not correlate with police brutality and mass incarceration. Canada locks up way fewer people, has way less harsh sentencing than the US, yet Canadian crime rates are not that different from those of the US [0]. It's also really weird to evoke HK in this discussion when the current police response in the US is way worse than anything reported out of HK. Particularly in the context that for the longest time the HK police actually had a rather splendid international reputation [1]. While US police had a "Dirty Harry" like reputation for several decades now, something that's reached its current peak with the whole "blueline" mentality and the glorification of comic vigilantes like the Punisher as a symbol for law enforcement. As such a whole lot of this is rooted very deeply in policing and incarceration culture and not some countries being inherently "more criminal" than others. [0] ▶ this video [1] [link]

in “George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter” · View on HN

jeffreygoestoMar 2020Cites it

I'm not sure that incarceration (and the circumstances under which it usually happens) in the US is increasing the "freedom". See i.e. ▶ this video

in “The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails It” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Law, policing & justiceSocial issues & culturegerman prisonscriminal justice reformincarcerationrehabilitationtedx