A three-room suite with sun-drenched windows, a treadmill and state-of-the-art electronics — no, this isn't some prized real estate for sale or an Airbnb listing, but rather a description of the prison cell of Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing terrorist who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.
The conditions may sound soft for a cold-blooded killer, and there is even more public outrage this week as Breivik has been granted a hearing after charging the state with inhumane treatment for keeping him in solitary confinement as he serves a 21-year sentence in Skien in southern Norway.
But beyond the unique circumstances of the Breivik case, Norway is a country committed to having a penal system focused on rehabilitation rather than pure punishment, according to The Guardian. In one facility, Bastoy Prison, the detainees live freely in one of a grouping of small homes on a private island. A maximum-security facility in Halden has been singled out for its policy of recreating life on the outside as an attempt to better integrate inmates when they are released.
The search for alternative correctional systems is by no means limited to Norway in a world where some 10.3 million people are currently being held in prisons, according to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research.