The image to the left depicts, believe it or not, a prison yard. A recent story in Time Magazine shows the beautiful and creative surroundings in a Norwegian prison. This penological approach, which characterizes Scandinavia and is very alien to our experiences here in the U.S., raises many questions. Is crime in Norway fundamentally different, so as to require less security and allow for more rehabilitative activities? Or are we more surveillance-and-security oriented, and if so, why?
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WOW! The photo alone challenges my personal paradigm of incarceration…
Scandinavians have been innovators in the field of corrections for quite a while, Jesse. Quite a few people outside the field mentioned their astonishment at the depiction of Swedish prisons in the recent film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; the prison cell housing journalist Blomkvist in the movie is not unlike these Norwegian images.