Californian Reacts | How Norway's Prisons Are Different From America's - Treat them like HUMANS?
Channel: HistorYEET! | Californian Reacts
Date: 2021-08-15

‘The most important thing is how we treat people’
Norway has developed a prison system that looks a bit different from that in the U.S., which has the world’s largest incarcerated population. More information about Halden Prison below!

-- Halden Prison --
(Norwegian: Halden fengsel) is a maximum-security prison in Halden, Norway. It has three main units and receives prisoners from all over the world. It has no conventional security devices. The second-largest prison in Norway, it was established in 2010 with a focus on rehabilitation; its design simulates life outside the prison. Among other activities, sports and music are available to the prisoners, who interact with the unarmed staff to create a sense of community. Praised for its humane conditions, Halden Prison has received the Arnstein Arneberg Award for its interior design in 2010 and been the subject of a documentary, but has also received criticism.

Located in Halden, Østfold, Norway, Halden Prison was built for over 10 years at a cost of 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million/£138 million). The prison received its first inmates on March 1, 2010 and was officially opened on April 8 by the Norwegian King Harald V. It is Norway's second-largest prison with a capacity of 248–252 prisoners and a site of 75 acres (30 ha).

As a maximum-security prison, it hosts dangerous as well as highly dangerous criminals, such as rapists, murderers, and child molesters. They compose half of the population, while a third of the residents are drug offenders. Sex offenders, who may face violence from other inmates, and prisoners who require close psychiatric or medical supervision, are located in Unit A, a restrictive and separated area. There is also a special unit (C8) focused on addiction recovery. Most inmates live in Units B and C, which are freer and have mixed cell blocks. Halden Prison receives both domestic and international criminals; as only around three-fifths of the prisoners are Norwegians (as of 2015), both Norwegian and English are used, and the prison has English teachers. However, fluency in Norwegian is a requirement to live in C8, because group and individual counseling is conducted in Norwegian.

There are no conventional security devices, such as barbed tape, electric fences, towers, or snipers. However, there is safety glass, a 6 m × 1,500 m (20 ft × 4,921 ft) concrete and steel wall, and a system of tunnels which guards use to walk through the prison. Although there are surveillance cameras on the prison grounds, they are not present in the cells, the cell hallways, the common rooms, the classrooms, and most of the workshops. While there is little violence reported, almost exclusively in Unit A, officers try to prevent it. If two inmates have a dispute, they engage in a mediation session under staff supervision. If mediation fails, repeated misbehavior or rule violations are punished with cell confinement or prison transference

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Original Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNpehw-Yjvs

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