Item — HN Reader

The 250 inmates here are locked in their cells for 12 hours a day. But those cells are private rooms, with wood furniture, a shower, a fridge and a flat-screen TV.

hmmm...Private rooms could be part of the problem. Isolation can create psychosis. Maybe 12 hours a day is good enough, but I think total isolation should be avoided whenever possible, or let prisoners choose whether or not to be isolated. Integrating prisoners saves money and makes then happier. But these are probably among worst offenders given that there are only 250.

6 comments

> But these are probably among worst offenders given that there are only 250.

While Halden is a maximum security prison, it's also highly focused on rehabilitation, so it's not necessarily where the worst offenders are (Breivik is at Ila for instance, which can hold 124 people).

Halden is actually a fairly big prison by norwegian standard I think, the capacity of the whole Norwegian prison system is a bit below 4000 (77 per 100000 citizens, the current incarceration rate is 72 per 100000 according to wikipedia).

72/100,000 versus Louisiana's 867/100,000 is a pretty shocking difference. Wow. The lowest in the US (Maine) is still 148/100,000.

I'm surprised Maine is only twice times Norway.

I don't think "inmates stay in their rooms at night" really counts as isolation.

Most people with roommates still want a private room to retreat to.

250 is probably an average-size prison in Norway?

Here in Finland, the largest prison in the country can accomodate 299 inmates. I imagine Norway's situation is roughly similar.

It seems to be one of the biggest prison in the country, Bergen can house 258 inmates but it's not clear that there are bigger prisons, trawling through the official listing[0] and looking for "insette" (inducted/inmates) and "plasser" (places/seats) most prisons units are in the high 60s, with very few approaching 200.

[0] http://www.kriminalomsorgen.no/finn-fengsel.237849.no.html

I regularly don't leave my home 12 hours or more at a time... Should I be worried? ;-)

I doubt it makes them happier. It would IF you can choose with who stay in the room and move in another if you don't like the company.

I mean I had to share some rooms for some weeks with different people, it was one of the worst experience of my life: different behaviors, idea of "respecting personal spaces", idea of "maximum noise allowed", habits at night, hygiene, etc... It is really something stressful. In a prison, when you risk to end up with people you probably won't like at all, is far better to have a personal room to stay for the big part of the time.

if you count 8 houers sleeping, then they are lockt in 4 houers of "awake" time lockt in there rooms