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Maybe it was deliberate word play, but 'their' here refers to the prisoners, not the books, in case anyone else misinterpreted this headline to imply they were actually editing the books.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This exact phenomenon is discussed in "Punished by Rewards." It's probably one of the best possible ways to train kids that reading is no fun, of no benefit to them, and should only be done if promised some kind of prize.
A smart friend of mine proudly stated how little he read in high school, and that he has not read a single book since. He is 26.
"Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...
What boils down is the Narco and crime sponsor policies that looks good on paper but on reality is made to free more prisoners.
The govt likes it because "feels good" and reduce prisoner spending and looks good on UN stats.
Lets by example say that I had a discussion with someone here and I killed him.
If I am on the 10% solved murdered case I will be brought to justice.
Then criminal justice will come:
1. Was I caught in "flagrante" (up to 24h after crime)? No? Wait for judgment outside or wait for preventive prison;
2. Do I have a job or a clean record? If yes wait for trial at home;
3. Did I intent to kill? Yes go to trial, Then you may pay some damages (very low fees) and community service.
Then comes trial. I am consider Guilty IF ONLY, IF ONLY when ALL resources and recurses of law were finished.
It is normal to crimes prescribes after 20 year abusing courts but it is the law.
So I lost all recurses and now I am in Jail. The maximum sentence is 30 years (Even if I kill 10 people).
I have the right to intimate visit (I can have sex with my girlfriend/friend/wife).
If I am studying I can leave to study.
If I work each worked day another one is removed from my sentence.
If I read a book too.
Then If I have good "behavior" my sentence is reduced to 1/6.
DO the math -> max 30 /6 -> 5 years - bonus points (book, studying) I am free in 2-3 years.
Now check the link I posted above -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... (click count, rate) Brazil is very humane with criminals but not with its victims.
My lower middle class condo has electrified fences, armed guards, CCTV, patrols, bullet proof glasses it is like a prison. The higher classes have more features.
People with good meaning soul and big heart cannot comprehend that some people for whatever reasons feel pleasure in being evil and don't care about others life. Then they project their good meaning in laws and thus give more power to evil people do more evil until they die.
Welcome to "modern laws" for just evolved homo sapiens.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Using literacy tests for racial discrimination”. Look, this is what bothers me with current “wokeism” trends. With this reasoning, literally any test/course/initiative/whatever will statistically have a slight racial/cultural/religious bias because the world and its population have such biases. So any positive initiative (like this one) which aims at improving lives of everyone (including people of color) will be ta…
These policies were introduced precisely so that people like you could defend them as "not racist" while still having the same net effect. We have more than ample documentation of it to the point that the only reason to disagree is deliberate ignorance or historical denialism.
Don’t you realize that this statement is either completely delusional or some form of woke nonsensical Newspeak?
Let me recap: This initiative only has upsides, no downsides. And it has no race distinction. And it benefits people across the board, from people of color to white people. And in absolute terms it will benefit to more people of color than white people (due to the demographics of Brazilian prisons). But you think that statistically it might benefit proportionally slightly more to white people than to people of color, so we should stop this initiative (which again, has no downside for anyone)?
Man I still think of myself as left wing and progressist, but this recent trend of the left, away from universalism, and deep into communautarism makes me feel more and more estranged...
I don’t disagree with your point that reducing mass incarceration should also be pursued though, and is more impactful.
As a Brazilian this why we have the largest number of homicides and one of highest rate of homicides -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... What boils down is the Narco and crime sponsor policies that looks good on paper but on reality is made to free more prisoners. The govt likes it because "feels good" and reduce prisoner spending and looks good on UN stats. Lets by example say that I h…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not even attempting to describe why crimes happen. It’s just offering people an incentive to read because literacy is strongly correlated with job prospects. I can’t see a downside to this pilot program. I hope they expand it to include technical/practical training.
The program is called "Redemption through Reading” and the officials statements are in similar vain. The implications are pretty clear. It's only made worse by how only select people can participate. That is on top of Brazil's history of using literacy tests for racial discriminatation. As well as their current, ineffective mass-incarceration policy (now 3rd largest in the world), which as in the US hits indigenous a…
> now 3rd largest in the world
It is large and ineffective but it is not the 3rd largest in the world if you look at the incarceration rate per 100k, which is a more reasonable metric. It is the 19th largest [1].
It bugs me somewhat how people often overlook that Brazil is the world's 6th most populous country. Most of Brazil's demographics, no matter what they refer to, will rank near the top when it comes to absolute numbers.
> hits indigenous and black south americans harder. I don't expect they'll have a rich corpus of indigenous literature either
66.7% of the Brazilian prison population are black (includes pardos / mixed race), while 32.3% are white. 54% of the Brazilian population are black, so the incarceration rate is disproportionate for the black population. That is, of course, very unfortunate. However, I don't think the indigenous are particularly affected - only 1390 indigenous Brazilians are in prison in the entire country [4].
A lot of people seem to assume that a significant proportion of the Brazilian population is indigenous. That is not the case. The number of indigenous Brazilians is very small, around 0.47% of the total population. [5]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...
[2] https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2020/10/19/em-15-a...
[3] https://jornal.usp.br/radio-usp/dados-do-ibge-mostram-que-54...
[4] http://antigo.depen.gov.br/DEPEN/depen-publica-levantamento-...
At school we had a teacher who tried to make us read 10 books a year. You could choose whatever book you wanted, and you had to write a small summary. So every one headed to the school library and looked for the smallest books available. The most popular book that every one read was called something like: "Collection of letters from from my Grandfather" and had around 50 to 70 pages and was very boring. Many also che…
> Many also cheated by watching movie adaptations of books. This sounds risky as movie adaptations sometimes wildly differ from the original material.
I remember sitting in the library later that day telling a friend what had happened in class. I pulled up the Wikipedia article only to see it had been updated to say something along the lines of “John Doe (or Joe Doe in some translations)” and I knew immediately it must have been someone from my class who’d made the edit in an effort to save other kids from the same fate they had suffered.
https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/prison-knitters
In India, there is a prison that has somewhat of a tradition of experimenting with unusual methods of behavioural change. Last time in 2015 it was Yoga:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/shorter-terms-for-priso...
An even more traditional way is known in Thailand, prison fights. Officially:
https://muaythai-world.com/muay-thai-thailand-prison-fights-...
[1] - Retratos do Cárcere: https://vimeo.com/383384532, https://www.pandafilmes.com.br/portfolio/retratos-do-carcere This is a series about inmates life's. It start giving a brief overview of the current state of Brazilian prison system, including some history to explain why it is this way. Then it go on to show what really means to be an inmate in Brazil. It shows the conditions inmates have to endure, the treatment inmate's family receives, the role religion has inside Brazilian prisons, etc.
[2] - Central: O Poder das Facções no Maior Presídio do Brasil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lbSBVpo9JA This is a documentary about the "Presídio Central" (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pres%C3%ADdio_Central_de_Porto...) which is the largest prison in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul. The prison is overcrowded and falling apart. It is considered one of the worsts active prisons in Brazil.
[3] - Deus e o Diabo em Cima da Muralha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbTMV1-0BTk This one follows Drauzio Varella, a famous physician, while he gives the last goodbye to the most infamous prison in Brazil(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carandiru_Penitentiary).
Unfortunately I don't know if these are available in languages other than Portuguese.