Ok, I think think this is a fantastic idea, and for us Canadians, it's already happening out here in British Columbia. The institute is called William Head, it's on Vancouver Island. The whole place is a peninsula, there is only one fence. Inmates live in condos in groups of four-eight. They learn cooperation and other skills required to operate in society.
The problem with prison is that it's not an effective deterrant. Recidivism rates are extremely high. Violence, coercion, gang mentality... these are the life skills people learn when you send them to prison. Committing an offense which earns you three years in prison shouldn't ruin your entire life because you got raped by a prisoner with AIDS because you couldn't pay off the debts you earned in your first week.
They are operating from the right standpoint. Teaching inmates accountability for their actions, and life skills to successfully operate in the real world as functioning adults is what we need to be doing. Not retributively slapping them on the wrist and throwing them to the wolves.
Prisons are the staple of human ambivalence towards our own problems. Throw them away and forget about them... they're defective anyway. This is brutality.
If someone I loved was murdered, and sent to a place like this, I'd hope they learned what they needed so they didn't put someone else through the pain and anguish that they did to me.
That being said, people truly don't realize how RARE murder and violent crime is compared to the vast majority of crime. In 2003, violent crime in British Columbia accounted for a MASSIVE 8% of the crime... SHOCKING!!!
. The other 92% of crime is the stuff we're sending these people to jail for when there is so obviously more effective and constructive ways of SOLVING their problems instead of COMPOUNDING them.