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Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

prison-off.com

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Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#71

Post by Kaze404 »

superflit wrote: post #33

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…

It's unbelievable that to some, the solution to the high crime rate in Brazil is putting more people in jail when a significant part of our prison population hasn't even been tried for their crimes yet. It's always shocking to read such a take, but I am then immediately reminded of the fact that we tend to gravitate towards easy answers to complicated problems. Hopefully one day you can move past that.

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#72

Post by 908B64B197 »

gbrown wrote: post #52
planet-and-halo wrote: post #16

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.

In elementary school we had something like this - we had to read a book from a different genre every month in order to earn a food item for the end of year picnic. I was constantly reading just science fiction, and ended up with only pickle relish, despite reading more than most of the other students. I don’t think the exercise convinced anyone who wasn’t already into it that reading is good and fun.

That's just... strange.

The correct approach would have been to either leave a student reading a lot alone, or to steer him toward other genres that are similar to Sci-Fi ("Hey gbrown, this other author has a similar style to X I see you enjoy, but it's not true sci-fi... you'll see").

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#73

Post by dukeofdoom »

I read "The 48 Laws of Power", after reading that its very popular in prisons. I liked the book, can recommend. Would be interesting to know what else they're reading. I imagine prisoners are much more well read then the average population, and live with violence. Would be interesting to know their taste in books.

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#74

Post by [deleted] »

gbrown wrote: post #52
planet-and-halo wrote: post #16

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.

In elementary school we had something like this - we had to read a book from a different genre every month in order to earn a food item for the end of year picnic. I was constantly reading just science fiction, and ended up with only pickle relish, despite reading more than most of the other students. I don’t think the exercise convinced anyone who wasn’t already into it that reading is good and fun.

[deleted]

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#75

Post by depressedpanda »

crubier wrote: post #34
ATsch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok so you’re saying: « Making prisoners read books is racist ». 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 whi…

> Ok so you’re saying: « Making prisoners read books is racist ».

> Don’t you realize that this statement is either completely delusional or some form of woke nonsensical Newspeak?

Even worse, the whole argument seems based on the premise that some races can only learn to read to a lesser extent.

I honestly don't understand. You cannot combat racism by being a racist.

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#76

Post by inglor_cz »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #68
crubier wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so you’re saying: « Making prisoners read books is racist ». 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 whi…

> This initiative only has upsides, no downsides. Theoretically, it might release someone who the rest of the world would have been better off keeping in jail.

This guy got out of Austrian prison because he could write readably, up to the point of being published and gaining a lot of support from the usual literary luvvies. (I read the book, it was way too self-pitying. Written well, but the stench of "everyone was so mean to me and I am such a victim" was unbearable.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Unterweger

He went on to murder a few more women before being caught and sentenced to life. (Hanged himself the same evening.)

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#77

Post by mastersummoner »

SlowAndCalm wrote: post #45
adflux wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I read a lot of novels in school and not many after. Reading is a vital skill but reading novels is not; a separation that was never conveyed to me to in school. For every great novel I have read, I've read countless more terrible novels and there is no greater waste of time than reading something terrible. Not reading artfully constructed prose has definitely taken a toll on my own writing though, as evidenced by th…

I find that pretty interesting. I've read a decent number of books of being lengths in my life; I'm no great reader, but I'm not a particular slouch either. And almost every book I've read I found very enjoyable; if I didn't, I usually put it down and not pick it up again.

But then, I tend to read stories by authors I already know I like, or those that are recommended or otherwise considered to be worthwhile reads.

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#78

Post by lvxferre »

janmo wrote: post #5

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…

Same deal with me, starting from my second year (8yo): write a short summary of a book of your choice every school month. On my third year however they tweaked the rules slightly, so the books must be from different series.

More than a decade later, chatting with one of my former teachers, I discovered why they tweaked the rules: because some lazy jerkass would pick a book from The Bored Witch illustrated series, read it in five minutes, write down the summary, then spend the rest of the day reading stuff he wasn't "supposed" to read on his own, like Heart of a Dog and The Metamorphosis. Because he knew that he wouldn't be able to summary those books.

...in my own defence I really enjoyed The Bored Witch.

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#79

Post by johnchristopher »

tgv wrote: post #62
johnchristopher wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like Bibliotherapy tried a stint in general public awareness two or three years ago but it didn't take off. Are there any reviews of its effectiveness for mental health problems like depression, anxiety, etc. ?

Relatively easy to find, given that the name is quite distinctive. E.g., https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02727... . That article doesn't seem to be conclusive. I, however, doubt the value of bibliotherapy. I don't see how it would work.

I am aware of that meta study, it's from 2017 though. I also didn't dig enough to get the list of books used in the various studies (I am interested self-help vs fiction/non-fiction).

Re: Brazil prisoners reading books to shorten their sentences (2020)

#80

Post by gbrown »

908B64B197 wrote: post #72
gbrown wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In elementary school we had something like this - we had to read a book from a different genre every month in order to earn a food item for the end of year picnic. I was constantly reading just science fiction, and ended up with only pickle relish, despite reading more than most of the other students. I don’t think the exercise convinced anyone who wasn’t already into it that reading is good and fun.

That's just... strange. The correct approach would have been to either leave a student reading a lot alone, or to steer him toward other genres that are similar to Sci-Fi ("Hey gbrown, this other author has a similar style to X I see you enjoy, but it's not true sci-fi... you'll see").

It was long enough ago that I honestly don’t recall whether or not the teacher tried that. I may have just been stubborn lol.
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