Experiment in Reducing Violence in Jails

[Monica]

Although this decision was made strictly to save money ($100k per year!), and apparently not to test the diet's effects on the inmates, it will be interesting to see what other results occur. I predict that they will see a decrease in prison violence, though it may take a few years for conclusive results to appear.

Health benefits may or may not occur, being that the soy they are using is surely GMO. So they might be trading one set of health problems for another. So I'm not really expecting to see health benefits. I am far more interested in a reduction in prison violence.

Arizona Jail Goes Meat-Free

(The intent of this thread is to discuss the violence aspect, not diet itself. There are already plenty of other threads dedicated to the meat-veg debate. This is why I'm posting this in Olio rather than the health/diet sub-forum.)

[AnthroHeart]

When I was in jail, I must have been in the zen room. Everyone got along, and I was free to explore my connection to God. Though I did embarrass others when I got naked before showering in the open. The other time I was in jail was isolation for a day. That was pretty peaceful too. Never had a bad time, and time went fast.

[C-JEAN]

Hi Monica & all.

One way to decrease the "violence" anywhere, is to decrease the
"excitement/nervousness/restlessness" of the persons.
One way to do that, is to lower or cut on SUGARs ! !

See the amazing results that cutting sugar do on children ! !

I guess "meat-free" will help, but "sugar-free" would do better. . ?
. . .and what about less coffee ?? B-)

They would be parallel/alternative tricks to help decrease the violence. . .

Blue skies.

[BrownEye]

Jails have a relatively high flow of short term incarcerations, not what I would think is enough time to manifest clarity after detox. Inmates often have not even cleared the drugs out of their system before they are released again.

Results would be more obvious in prisons I would expect.

[Horuseus]

You guys (Actually everyone) needs to look towards what Norway is doing:

Despite the seriousness of their crimes, however, I found that the loss of liberty was all the punishment they suffered. Cells had televisions, computers, integral showers and sanitation. Some prisoners were segregated for various reasons, but as the majority served their time – anything up to the 21-year maximum sentence (Norway has no death penalty or life sentence) – they were offered education, training and skill-building programmes. Instead of wings and landings they lived in small "pod" communities within the prison, limiting the spread of the corrosive criminal prison subculture that dominates traditionally designed prisons. The teacher explained that all prisons in Norway worked on the same principle, which he believed was the reason the country had, at less than 30%, the lowest reoffending figures in Europe and less than half the rate in the UK.

The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

[Adonai One]

Now let's stop putting people in jail for non-violent crimes.

[Plenum]

ever heard about this guy?

The World's Most Unusual Therapist

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane?

It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.

I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does. The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility.

His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist. He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

"After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely," he told me. "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed."

I was in awe.

[AnthroHeart]

That's some humility to take responsibility for other people's actions. EFT uses "I love and accept myself." which seems close as well.