To Solve Prison Crowding, Norway Goes Dutch

Norwegian prisons are the most luxurious in the world. The country’s newest high-security facility, Halden, opened in 2010 and features cells outfitted with windows, private bathrooms, and flatscreen TVs. A low-security prison outside Oslo, on Bastøy Island, offers a sauna and tennis courts; inmates wear street clothes and are free to roam as they please among the cottages where they live and the buildings where they work and eat.

This year the government plans to invest as much as $690 million to renovate and upgrade prison facilities. The goal is to rehabilitate the country’s roughly 3,600 prisoners by letting them live somewhat normal lives while serving their time, an approach that’s resulted in one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world.