Halden Prison

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Halden, Norway's second largest prison with a capacity of 252 inmates, embodies the guiding principles of the country's penal system: that repressive prisons do not work and that treating prisoners humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society.

Individual cells come with an en-suite bathroom, a flat-screen TV and various comforts.

They measure 130 square feet and are divided up into units (10 to 12) which share a living room and kitchen.

Halden Prison inmates have access to a gym with a rock climbing wall, public lounge and kitchen.

Halden also features jogging trails in nearby woods and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits.

The Halden facility has a number of occupational training centres, including a recording studio and a teaching kitchen.

Some 760,000 Euro were spent just on artworks.

The actual cells look like glorified dorm rooms and there are communal kitchens and living rooms for the inmates to chill out and decompress after a long day of reflecting on killing innocent people.

The inmates can attend a vast range of formative courses at a official high school located inside the prison. Subjects can include languages, IT, science, catering, music, (there is even a professional sound studio) art and handicraft and several sports.

The well-stocked library at Halden contains not only books but magazines, CDs, and DVDs.

Prison guards don't carry guns -- that creates unnecessary intimidation and social distance -- and they routinely eat meals and play sports with the inmates.

The prison has a recording studio 'with a professional mixing board' and 'in-house music teachers'.

The inmates get to play guitar, bongos, the piano and sing.

To avoid an institutional feel, exteriors are not concrete but made of bricks, galvanized steel and larch.

And while there is one obvious symbol of incarceration -- a 20-foot concrete security wall along the prison's perimeter -- trees obscure it.

www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/the-radical-humanen...
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Anders Behring Breivik is held there:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik