In Norway, A Prison Built On Second Chances
The prison in Halden, Norway, shown here in April 2010, is surrounded by a 25-foot-high concrete wall and little else to suggest it's a maximum-security facility. The emphasis is on treating the prisoners with respect and giving them the skills to reintegrate into society when they leave. Heiko Junge/AFP/Getty Images
The first thing you notice when you enter the grounds of Halden Prison in Norway's far southeast is the forest: Pine and birch trees surround buildings of dark black brick with elegant windows. There's no concrete exercise yard here; it looks like a university campus.
Are Hoidal, the prison governor, smiles at the incredulous reaction of visitors. The effect of the prison design was intentional. "The only thing that looked like a prison is the big wall. You think this is a prison when you see the big wall, but the buildings [could] be a university, hospital, school, something like that," he says.
Two men sit inside the chapel at Halden prison in far southeast Norway in this picture taken in 2010. Prisoners here spend 12 hours a day in their cells, compared to many U.S. prisons where inmates spend all but one hour in their cell. STR/Reuters/Landov
A 25-foot-high concrete wall encircles the compound, but nothing else speaks of a maximum-security prison — no guard towers, no guns, no razor wire. "We have a lot of drug smugglers — it's near the border [with Sweden]. We have murderers, rapists. ... We have everything in this prison," Hoidal says.
They have done bad things, Hoidal says, but they are not bad people. "That's a really important distinction," he says. They are "human beings, we treat them with respect." And that's the philosophy behind this prison, which opened in 2010. Norway, which is rich with North Sea oil, spends $90,000 a year to house each prisoner — three times what is spent on inmates in the United States.
Norwegians think it's a good investment: The recidivism rate is less than 30 percent, half of what it is in the U.S. And there are more than 2.2 million Americans in prison; Norway's prison population is one-tenth that, on a per capita basis.
Private Rooms With Flat-Screen TVs
We walk up a meandering landscaped path, passing prisoners on the way. They greet the prison governor by his first name. The atmosphere at Halden is casual, but the doors are locked and cameras watch every movement.
Past a grove of birch trees, we approach a series of elegant wood-and-metal-clad buildings. These are the cell blocks. The 250 inmates here are locked in their cells for 12 hours a day. But those cells are private rooms, with wood furniture, a shower, a fridge and a flat-screen TV. It's not just the architecture that makes Halden unique. You'll find the staff playing badminton with inmates in the gym, eating with them in the dining areas.
Prisoners at Halden have private rooms, which all have a fridge, desk and flat-screen TV. Inmates who don't follow the rules and attend classes and counseling are sent to conventional prisons. STR/Reuters /Landov
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