Paradox practice (Comprehension)

Here’s a blog devoted to paradox.

Task:
For each post in the blog, question: is it really an example of paradox?
For those that are paradoxes,  explain the paradox.

[Note: Refer to this post for techniques on answering paradox questions]

Comprehension practice: Paradox

“The relative nature of status explains the paradox observed in 1974 by an economist called Richard Easterlin that, while rich people are happier than poor people within a country, average happiness does not increase as that country gets richer.”

- Darwinism: Why we are as we are, The Economist

Question:

Explain the paradox that the author refers to.

Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System

“We’re seeing more and more mentally ill kids who couldn’t find community programs that were intensive enough to treat them,” said Joseph Penn, a child psychiatrist at the Texas Youth Commission. “Jails and juvenile justice facilities are the new asylums.”

At least 32 states cut their community mental health programs by an average of 5 percent this year and plan to double those budget reductions by 2010, according to a recent survey of state mental health offices.

Juvenile prisons have been the caretaker of last resort for troubled children since the 1980s, but mental health experts say the system is in crisis, facing a soaring number of inmates reliant on multiple — and powerful — psychotropic drugs and a shortage of therapists.

- New York Times

Question:

How far do you agree that our system of dealing with youth crime is flawed?

Comprehension practice: Paradox

Under a plan to reduce the state juvenile inmate population, many youths who once would have been held by the state are now detained by the Los Angeles County juvenile detention system. Los Angeles County is also under a federal mandate to improve psychiatric services for juvenile inmates, especially at the six camps at its Challenger Memorial Youth Center, which holds most of the county’s medium- and high-risk offenders and most of its mentally ill ones.

“We were told that the Challenger camps are, paradoxically, the only camps at which staff are authorized to carry O.C. spray,” wrote federal civil rights investigators in a 2008 report to county authorities, referring to oleoresin capsicum, known as pepper spray. “One supervisor told us that he believed that allowing staff to carry and use O.C. spray made sense given the ‘mental health population.’ ”

- New York Times

“We were told that the Challenger camps are, paradoxically, the only camps at which staff are authorized to carry O.C. spray,”

Explain the paradox in the above statement.

[See this post on how to answer questions on paradox]