In February, a group of American corrections officials, judges, prosecutors and public defenders spent a week visiting prisons in Germany and the Netherlands. Those countries incarcerate people at about one-tenth the rate of the United States, for far less time, and under conditions geared toward social reintegration rather than punishment alone.
A new report based on the group’s research suggests that European sentencing and penal practices may provide useful guidance in the growing effort to reform an American prison system buckling under its own weight.
So, a promising development. The phrase "buckling under its own weight" doesn't have a humanitarian ring to it, but a step in the right direction, nevertheless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/opinion/lessons-from-european-prisons.html
