#Prison architect wiki reoffending rate free

Yet the constant refrain from the popular press was that I, too, was living in a 'holiday camp'. Across the prison estate, several hundred prisoners took their own lives, half a dozen of whom I knew personally вЂ“ and a number were murdered. In that time I was caught up in a major riot, trapped in a siege and witnessed regular acts of serious violence. Photograph: Marco Di LauroДЄs a life prisoner, I spent the first eight years of the 20 I served in a cell with a bed, a chair, a table and a bucket for my toilet. I'm sceptical of such media reports.ДЄn inmate repairs a bike. A number of wide-eyed commentators before me have variously described conditions under which the island's 115 prisoners live as 'cushy', 'luxurious' and, the old chestnut, 'like a holiday camp'. We know we are prisoners but here we feel like people.'

#Prison architect wiki reoffending rate free

But we have free time so we can do some fishing, or in summer we can swim off the beach. 'It's like living in a village, a community. I ask him what life is like on the island. If it fails he will be on Bastoy until his release date in two years' time. The teacher explained that all prisons in Norway worked on the same principle, which he believed was the reason the country had, at less than 30%, the lowest reoffending figures in Europe and less than half the rate in the UK.ДЄs the ferry powers through the freezing early-morning fog, Petter tells me he is appealing against his conviction. Instead of wings and landings they lived in small 'pod' communities within the prison, limiting the spread of the corrosive criminal prison subculture that dominates traditionally designed prisons. Some prisoners were segregated for various reasons, but as the majority served their time вЂ“ anything up to the 21-year maximum sentence (Norway has no death penalty or life sentence) вЂ“ they were offered education, training and skill-building programmes. Cells had televisions, computers, integral showers and sanitation. Recently it was the temporary residence of Anders Breivik, the man who massacred 77 people in July 2011.Дespite the seriousness of their crimes, however, I found that the loss of liberty was all the punishment they suffered. In fact, Skien is a concrete fortress as daunting as any prison I have ever experienced and houses some of the most serious law-breakers in the country.

I had heard stories about Norway's liberal attitude. Four years ago I was invited into Skien maximum security prison, 20 miles north of Oslo. But what really sets us apart is the Norwegian attitude towards prisoners. It has fewer than 4,000 prisoners there are around 84,000 in the UK. Norway has a population of slightly less than fiveВ million, a 12th of the UK's. There are big differences between the two countries, of course. 'They treat us like grownups.' I haven't come here particularly to draw comparisons, but it's impossible not to consider how politicians and the popular media would react to a similar scenario in Britain.

'Here, they give us trust and responsibility,' he says.

'I'm Petter,' he says.Д«efore he transferred to Bastoy, Petter was in a high-security prison for nearly eight years. He notes my surprise, smiles, and takes off a thick glove before offering me his hand. I'm taken aback slightly when the ferry operative who welcomed me aboard just minutes earlier, and with whom I'm exchanging small talk about the weather, suddenly reveals he is a serving prisoner вЂ“ doing 14 years for drug smuggling. T he first clue that things are done very differently on Bastoy prison island, which lies a couple of miles off the coast in the Oslo fjord, 46 miles south-east of Norway's capital, comes shortly after I board the prison ferry.