When prison becomes a respite from civilization

[Odin]

Work and school life in South Korea have become so stressful and bad, that some people are paying to escape it, by temporarily staying in a prison-like community to be alone:

HONGCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - For most people, prison is a place to escape from. For South Koreans in need of a break from the demands of everyday life, a day in a faux jail is the escape.

“This prison gives me a sense of freedom,” said Park Hye-ri, a 28-year-old office worker who paid $90 to spend 24 hours locked up in a mock prison.

Since 2013, the “Prison Inside Me” facility in northeast Hongcheon has hosted more than 2,000 inmates, many of them stressed office workers and students seeking relief from South Korea’s demanding work and academic culture.

“I was too busy,” said Park as she sat in a 5-sq-m (54-sq-foot) cell. “I shouldn’t be here right now, given the work I need to do. But I decided to pause and look back at myself for a better life.”


More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-south...SKCN1NS0JB

[alexander]

Wow. This is something else. «“After a stay in the prison, people say, ‘This is not a prison, the real prison is where we return to,’” she said.» Reminds me of Seaweed's talk with Aragorn—http://thebrilliant.org/podcast/episode-85-seaweed/—where they mentioned someone making the point that being "released" from prison is just being released into an even bigger prison.

[Odin]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Seaweed was referring to Gerry Hannah of the Canadian urban guerrilla group the Squamish Five. Gerry did 5 years in prison. He told me the same thing about what it was like being released back into society when I interviewed him for an article back in 2001.

[Nomad]

Reminds me of rich westerners who pay huge sums to live an ascetic lifestyle on vacation. See Twitter's CEO's recent trip to Myanmar. Deep down these people know they would be happier living a simple life but they are forced by our society to clutter their minds.