Comic Strips

I didn't talk about american prisons nor am I american. I'm kinda astonished at your leaps of imagination. Don't make up things when discussing.

Pretty much every country has prisons and in most countries they are an institution of reform that often actually works.

And seriously, compared what we did here in Europe just 100-300 years ago, even american prisons aren't all that bad.

Already 400 years ago we had the "house of correction" system ("Zuchthaus" in German), which were for-profit labour camps that anyone could be sent to, even for things like being depressed or if your employer judges that you didn't work hard enough.

There everyone was doing forced labour (usually the hardest physical work they could find) and if you didn't do it, they'd whip you.

In most European countries that system was in active use until WW2, in some even into the 70s.

This was seen as a merciful system, since it was the alternative to the wide-spread corporal and capital punishments even for minor crimes.

In the 17th century you could be publically flogged or get a finger cut off for something as petty as theft. In some regions you could even get the death penalty for similarly small crimes.

So while the US prison system is quite horrible by the standards of civilized countries, it's not when compared to prior systems.