Norway's Halden Prison: The most humane prison in the world

Norway Builds the World's Most Humane Prison

Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Unlike many American prisons, the air isn't tinged with the smell of sweat and urine. Instead, the scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual."

Design plays a key role in Halden's rehabilitation efforts. "The most important thing is that the prison looks as much like the outside world as possible," says Hans Henrik Hoilund, one of the prison's architects. To avoid an institutional feel, exteriors are not concrete but made of bricks, galvanized steel and larch; the buildings seem to have grown organically from the woodlands. And while there is one obvious symbol of incarceration — a 20-ft. (6 m) concrete security wall along the prison's perimeter — trees obscure it, and its top has been rounded off, Hoilund says, "so it isn't too hostile."

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. "Many of the prisoners come from bad homes, so we wanted to create a sense of family," says architect Per Hojgaard Nielsen. Half the guards are women — Hoidal believes this decreases aggression — and prisoners receive questionnaires asking how their experience in prison can be improved.

Scandinavia, and one could argue Norway specifically, is currently the world capitol of inane leftist moral relativism and over-the-top politically correct thinking.  Is this the right treatment that should be given to murderers and rapists? Tolerant and godless liberals from all countries pride themselves on their keen awareness of the sensitivities of all. While their actions may seem well intended on the outside, they overlook one fundamental pillar of human civilization from the beginning of time. Justice. Justice is about punishment, not making the criminals feel better about themselves. What we have here is yet another example of progressives acting counter to that of the natural world and humanity.

By making it clear that their first priority is to rehabilitate these inmates, the Norwegians have spit upon their law abiding citizens. They have done this by wasting 1.5 billion kroner (252 million dollars) of legitimate hard earned Norwegian tax money on the comforts of those who have raped and murdered. Even more so, they have assumed these criminals will be able to return to society, effectively putting them in the same social category as those law abiding Norwegians who decided not to murder or rape someone.

Now, there is talk that mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik may be sent to Halden. Is this right? Any sane human being with a conscience desires punishment, justice, for someone who committed the worst of crimes. Should a murderer like Breivik live in a dorm room more modern and luxurious than that of most college students in the United States today? Should he have access to hiking trails, cooking classes, and a sound studio should he wish? Oh, and thank the great secular gods of liberalism, he can get more sunlight through his vertical cell windows. Ironically, one could argue it was preposterous liberal political correctness like this that made Breivik snap in the first place.

The purpose of this post is to illustrate the absolute lack of human reasoning among the secular-progressive leftists of the world today. Much in the same way they champion the marriage rights of those who pervert the very institution through unnatural and dangerous behavior, they also champion the human rights of those who forfeited those rights when they took innocent human life.

Yes, Micheal Savage was right when he said, "liberalism is a mental disorder."