this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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A gilded cage is still a cage. I’d rather work and pay rent and live in a modest apartment than be imprisoned in a luxury hotel that I’m not allowed to leave. Prisoners in Halden prison don’t get to set their own schedule, don’t get to quit being a prisoner and move across the country, don’t get to code with whom they live and associate.
Even with a minimum wage job you can save up enough money for a plane ticket to anywhere in the world and just leave. Or even just a bus ticket across the country to live somewhere else.
Or how about taking your girlfriend/boyfriend out on a date to a nice restaurant? Or rent a cabin in the woods for a weekend and just relax? Or go out to the bar for a few beers with a friend? Or volunteer to spend time with some elderly folks at a nursing home!
Being in prison sucks, no matter how much they dress it up. The vast majority of things you might do are closed off to you just because you can’t leave. Every single one of those prisoners knows they’re being punished. Every single one of them counts the days until their release.
If you make minimum wage in the city I live in you either live with your parents, have multiple roomates, or live on the street.
Right, but you don’t have to live in that city. You have the choice to move somewhere else! Prisoners don’t have that choice.
you sound like you have never lived in true poverty
Is that the poverty only experienced by a true Scotsman?
I’ve never had to live on the street, if that’s what you’re asking. I was raised by a single father. We had as many as 4 roommates at various times, including alcoholics and drug addicts. I’ve had to call the police on some of them. I’ve had to stay at my grandparents’ while my dad drove across the country as a salesman just to pay the bills.
I dropped out of high school at age 16 and only managed to go back and finish in my 30s. I got into university and graduated with a degree, thanks to generous government loans and grants. Now I got my first job post-graduation working in a mail room at age 41.
Was my life easy? No. But I wasn’t living in a slum in central Africa drinking contaminated water and suffering from Guinea worm disease. I think anyone in North America who grew up in a working class home is a long, long way from that kind of poverty.
Why didn't your father simply move then? What I was trying to say is that being poor isn't as easy and free as you make it sound. I couldn't visit any nice place ever when I was at my lowest. In fact I remember being rammed to the ground by police because I couldn't buy a tram ticket to school and took it illegally anyway. Most days there was nothing I could do other then sit in my flat, sometimes without power or warm water. Eventually I was days away from ending up on the street. I would have welcomed a Norwegian prison cell with open arms and i think your comment downplays the horrors of absolute poverty. Especially considering that in a lot of these fancy prison countries you are actually allowed to leave prison during the day, because they are about reintegration rather then punishment.
My dad moved a lot actually. He lived all over the country. He moved to be close to his parents (my grandparents) who helped raise me.
I’m sorry you experienced the hardships you did. Are you saying you’d rather do a 10 year prison sentence in Norway instead of the poverty you experienced on the street? That’s pretty unfathomable to me.
Anyway, I never said anything about it being “free and easy.” Life is hard. But being in prison is neither free nor easy, even in a fancy Norwegian prison.
Yea I would have rather been in prison. There is food and medical care in prison. Poverty kills. I was also lucky enough to have an awesome grandmother to prevent the worse :). Also I want to say that I would never start a 'who has it worse' competition, but I thought my experience could be valuable to my point. I'm glad that you made it out and are doing good now, cheers.
Thanks! I’m glad you’re doing better now too!