The punishment that awaits the killer of Norway


An inmate enjoys the sun outside his
house at Bastoey Prison in Norway.

M. Mason writes:

Multiple news sources have speculated that Anders Breivik could be jailed in one of the world’s most progressive correctional facilities, where some of the most hardened criminals, including murderers and rapists, are kept. Here are a few photos of the terrible ordeal that awaits Breivik if he is sent to Norway’s notorious Halden Prison. Better brace yourself before you look at these. And this description comes from the Telegraph:

The jail is spread over 75 acres of woodland just outside Oslo and facilities include a sound studio, jogging trails and a two-bedroom house separate from the main facility where convicts can stay with their families during overnight visits.

Guards move around the prison unarmed and … half of the prison staff are women, a policy based on research which shows a female presence induces a less aggressive atmosphere.

In a far cry from the brutalist set up of British or American prisons, there is even a “kitchen laboratory” where inmates can take specialist cooking courses.

And this, from Time Magazine:

The cells rival well-appointed college dorm rooms, with their flat-screen TVs and minifridges. Designers chose long vertical windows for the rooms because they let in more sunlight. There are no bars. Every 10 to 12 cells share a living room and kitchen. With their stainless-steel countertops, wraparound sofas and birch-colored coffee tables, they resemble Ikea showrooms.

Halden’s greatest asset, though, may be the strong relationship between staff and inmates. Prison guards don’t carry guns—that creates unnecessary intimidation and social distance—and they routinely eat meals and play sports with the inmates.

I imagine he’ll probably be able to get his own personal feng shui advisor too. Do the crime, do the time in Norway, eh? This guy Breivik is beginning to look shrewder by the minute.

LA replies:

How about that? Just before your e-mail came in, I conceded to a reader that I had gone too far in my attacks on Norway last night. But this is so awful, the Norwegians are so over the top in their liberalism, that they deserve obloquy. I think I will have to recant my recantation.

- end of initial entry -

D. from Seattle writes:

This is Norway’s newest and most secure prison. Click on the slide show.

LA replies:

One of the photos shows a prisoner jogging alongside a comely young woman described as his personal trainer.

Stephen T. writes:

I see here that, as of the end of 2010, high-speed internet access is guaranteed to all prisoners in Norway, including those in high security. But there are limits as far as the sites they are permitted to access. And, they are not allowed to send messages out so nobody will be getting any Tweets from Anders. The Norwegian equivalent of the death penalty, I guess.

Also notice the photo of the Norwegian convict here—a broken man doing hard time in The Slammer!

LA writes:

I’ve placed the photo at the top of the entry.

Jon W. writes:

I think people are missing the whole point of Norwegian punishment. Prison time is not the punishment. It’s what comes after. These Norwegians are psychological masters. Think of it. One spends 20 years in the best comfort. Then one has to leave this heaven. Banished from jail to go out into the world. Now a lifetime of misery begins. This is the Adam and Eve ploy—banishment from Eden to die daily in the world outside the garden (prison). Is not this masterful psychology? The longer the incarceration, the worse the feelings after one is turned out of prison. These are brilliant penal tacticians!

Warner D. writes:

“An inmate enjoys the sun outside his house at Bastoey Prison in Norway.”

Quite Scriptural the Norwegians:

Matthew 5:45: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good.”

LA replies:

Or, more precisely, “He gives a nice sun tan to the evil and the good.”

July 28

Paul K. writes:

I had an idea about my future retirement, which at the moment seems out-of-reach financially: why not go to Oslo in ten or fifteen years and hold up a bank? I’ll get my two-room apartment with TV and private bathroom, good meals, exercise program, medical care, wooded landscaping—sounds as good as the independent living facility for which my father pays $5,000 a month. But then I have to consider the possibility that in ten or fifteen years Norway will be operating under Sharia law.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 27, 2011 03:34 PM | Send