Answer:
In norway, the encarceration rate is 75 per 100.000 people, while in the US it is 707 per 100.000. This is almost 10 times more.
In Norway, people stay out. The recidivism rates is 20% (one of the lowest in the world), while in the US 76.6% of the prisioners go back to prison in five years.
Norway base their prison system in "restorative justice", that focus on rehabilitating the prisioner rather than just punishing the crime. The facilities incorporate "cognitive-behavioral programs rooted in social learning theory", and this makes it more efficient keeping people out of jail. The maximum time is 21 years, but if the justice consider the person is not rehabilited they could put 5 more years to their sentence, and that could go on forever.
In the US, on the other hand, people keep being arrested all the time, over 540,000 in pretrial detention, and more than 7.2 million are on probation, being more than 2 million behind bars. The US have life sentences and even death sentences depeding on the calloussness of the crime. It affects the whole society and community. People commited for non-violent crimes remains in jail in jail if they cant afford paying the bail. Another common aspect of prison, the solitaire, makes people unable to live in society in a healthy way.
There are so many things that lead to the over encarceration in the US and to the high rate of recidividism. Providing security, food, health and education for poor societies would be super effective in helping them staying away from crimes. Changing the prison system to a place where people go to actually understand the consequences of their crimes, study, work and go out rehabilited would do much more effects on the whole society.
