The Norway Prison system is tagged the most humane prison system to ever exist. This is because inmates are not allowed to feel dismembered from the rest of society.
The Prison system is set up in such a way that inmates are allowed to go on picnics, visit families, enjoy their favourite games or sport, also they are able to have access to books, learn skills and do things that are beneficial to them. Unbelievably, inmates are not forced to wear the prison uniforms, unlike other parts of the world where inmates get punished for failing to put on their uniforms.
A prison library is often referred to as a ‘normal zone’ for the inmates and the services offered are important for rehabilitation, education and socialisation. For many, the library can function as a window to the outside world in an otherwise monotonous existence behind prison walls. The library and its staff convey impulses in the form of literature, culture, experiences and knowledge, thus opening the door to new possibilities and richer life. As of 2009, the Norwegian government promises books to all those in prison. In other words, all inmates who are unable to use ordinary public libraries shall have access to a prison library or some satisfactory alternative.
Norway has 43 prisons with 40 of them having libraries. The libraries serve 99 per cent of the inmates who are not able to regularly visit libraries outside the prison. The maximum prison sentence in Norway is 21 years. When prisoners have completed all but about three years of their sentence, they are eligible to go to Bastoy Prison, the only prison in Norway that is on an island.
The prison is a multi-building complex and a working farm and timber operation with horses, cows, chickens, and some tame fox. It has about 115 inmates who all work at various jobs on the island. Some have the privilege of leaving the island for jobs or school on the mainland, returning every night.
To Norwegians, Prison libraries are part of the national library network. They belong to the public library sector, are subject to the Library Act and are meant to give the same services to their users as all public libraries.
In 2007 the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority produced Library services in prisons – a plan for 2007- 2009 aimed at ensuring that the inmates of all prisons in Norway should have access to a library. The plan reviews the need for library services and what it would cost to offer these services to all prison inmates. The Authority and the Norwegian Correctional Services cooperate in evaluating on the basis of specific criteria which prisons should receive priority in the process of establishing new prison libraries.
WATCH VIDEO: The Differences Between Norway Prisons And American Prisons
Most interestingly, The collection includes easy-to-read materials for inmates who are dyslexic or just learning
to read and books in several languages. Coffee and tea are available all hours the library is open. The library also offers programming such as movies with popcorn, and this coming summer, a festival with an inmate and local bands. There is a reading discussion group where inmates read articles and discuss them.
Prison in Norway is not particularly a prison, it is a well equipped correctional home where people who have committed a crime or the other learn to change their ways and come out as better people.
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