Why Bastoy Correctional Facility Is Among The Best Prisons
Norway has, over time, consistently ranked among the most excellent in lists containing the most comfortable correctional facilities worldwide. Norway’s prison system has witnessed several enhancements ad evolutions since the 1990s. It currently embraces environments that represent inclusivity and comfort. While changing its attitudes and approach to incarcerated individuals, Norway molds high-function society members. Former inmates gain necessary skills to contribute to the state’s economy in return.
Norway’s incarceration rate, as of 2014, was at only 75 per 100000 citizens. Additionally, after establishing the new prison system, Norway’s recidivism rate has decreased from 70% to only 20% in recent years. This decrease is due to the system’s focus on restorative justice that identifies prison facilities in the same category as rehabilitation centers. Unlike other prisons that focus on mistreatment and punitive measures on prisoners, Bastoy aims to reintegrate inmates as responsible contributors to communities. To accomplish this goal, the facility creates jail cells that are similar to small dorm rooms.
Many other prisons in Norway have abolished the inclusion of bars in their architectural designs and instead have open-style cells. Apart from the innovative housing designs, the Norway jail system offers several programs and courses that an individual can access in traditional recreation centers. Primarily, these programs facilitate a peaceful atmosphere in prison comparable to others that create a space for violence and hatred. In addition, the jail system emphasizes the importance of education amongst inmates. The goal is not to encourage the inmates to survive but to live a complete life after their incarceration time.
About Bastoy Correctional Facility
Bastoy Correctional Facility is located in Bastoy Island in the Oslo Fiord that belongs to Hotern municipality. It is the largest low-security correctional institution in Norway. Typically, the facility utilizes the whole island. However, the northern part containing Nordbukta beach is designated as open to the public. The justice system organizes the facility as a small local community or an island community. The prison comprises 80 buildings, forest, agricultural land, football field, beach zones, roads, and cultural landscapes.
Bastoy correctional facility has a shop, information office, school, library, church, health services, dock, government social services (NAV), and ferry service with its shipping agency. The facility also features a lighthouse that contains facilities to let for meetings and seminars.
Programs and Services
The correctional facility offers unique programs to incarcerated individuals for successful reintegration into their communities and families. These services include:
- School at Bastoy Prison
Individuals serving sentences in Bastoy prison have similar education rights to citizens outside prison walls. Horten High School is in charge of running the school unit at this facility. The facility houses the school unit in the culture house, church building, and housekeeping course house (17a).
- Chaplain services
The prison has a full-time position chaplain usually employed by the Ministry of the Church and Culture. Like the school and health services, the chaplainry belongs to the prison’s external services. Typically, the chaplain is someone to talk to in jail. For this reason, they are sworn to silence regarding personal conversations.
Depending on the understanding of a prisoner, the chaplain attempts to prevent the damages a jail sentence can prompt. Furthermore, they work with health services in contributing to the rehabilitation process. This function is proper when an offender adjusts to society after release.
Additionally, the facility’s chaplain organizes cultural events and meetings, including visits from groups outside prison. If an inmate wants to contact a representative of another faith community, the chaplain can also arrange for the process.
- Health Services
Incarcerated inmates at Bastoy prison can access health services from Monday through to Friday. The jail hires professional and certified health care providers. They include a psychiatric nurse in a full-time position and another nurse once each week. Additionally, the prison has an available doctor half a day per week, currently on Thursdays. There is a physical therapist who visits the facility once a week and a dentist once every fortnight.
As long as one is at Bastoy prison, the facility is responsible for their health and replaces regular doctors where applicable. If the prison cannot further help, it refers its inmates to specialist health services.
- Library
Bastoy prison library is open every day and all year. Typically, a librarian from the Horten library acts as a staff in the library twice a week. On the other hand, prisoners cover the rest of the week. This library lends out magazines, books, a few DVD players, books on CD, language courses, music, and movies. Even better, offenders can read the latest newspapers or magazines while sipping tea or coffee. Additionally, the library has a computer and printer where inmates can write letters. It is also a friendly meeting place for inmates.
Brief History of the System
Before the current cushy prison, a juvenile detention center (Bastoy Boys’ Home) occupied the Bastoy Island. In 1898, the Norwegian government purchased the island and opened the reformatory in 1900. In 1915, the site witnessed an insurrection by the boys that was suppressed by the Norwegian military. The Norwegian government took over the Boys’ Home in 1935 and later shut it down in 1970. Notably, a film dramatized this event in King of the Devil’s Island in 2010.
The event occurred in May 1935, when about 390 to 40 boys rallied around four others who had escaped and recaptured. They refused to work and armed themselves with stones and farming tools. In addition, the boys cut the telephone lines and torched the barn with stolen matches and cigarettes. Notably, the same barn had suffered the same fate two years before.
When the correctional officers and instructors failed to stop the riot, the facility called in the military. Several troops stormed the island alongside two seaplanes, the armored ship “Norway,” and two submarines. Several boys escaped to the forest. However, the facility later recaptured them. Unfortunately, the uprising did not end the institution’s strict disciplinary methods that continued up to 1953 after the Ministry of Social Affairs took over the facility’s operation.
Ironically, Bastoy Island, once well known for the brutal reformatory, is currently the progressive Bastoycorrectional facility site, established in 1982.
Interestingly, prisoners must apply to qualify for incarceration at Bastoy prison. If the facility’s officials feel the prisoner poses a threat, they can reject the applications. In its 38-year existence, the facility has only witnessed one attempted escape. Typically, the offenders are aware of how easy they have it and fear the act’s consequences. Usually, the prison sends inmates who tried to escape to the strictest prisons.
Bastoy prison was, in 2014, awarded the Blanche Major Reconciliation Prize for “promoting human values and tolerance.” The prison has been termed as one of the most liberal prisons worldwide. Unlike most correctional facilities globally, offenders and inmates here get along.
Life at Bastoy Correctional Facility
At a facility like Bastoy, rules and regulations are very minimal. The prison permits incarcerated individuals to have televisions in their rooms. However, they can do so as long as they bring their own during admission. Unlike typical prisons that require inmates to wear orange uniforms, inmates at Bastoy can wear their preferred clothes. Similarly, guards do not have uniforms. Therefore, you can hardly distinguish inmates in the facility from outsiders.
Here, every inmate must work. The prison requires all inmates to arrive at their workstations at 8:30 am and end shifts at 3:30 pm during weekdays. There exist several avenues where inmates can work. They include working in the garden and chopping trees to extract firewood. Some offenders are responsible for horses used in transporting supplies and wood within Bastoy Island. When executing these tasks, prison does not impose any movement restrictions. The presence of guards is optional. Furthermore, incarcerated individuals do not wear monitoring bracelets nor shackles.
Most importantly, inmates do not offer free services. The correctional facility pays about $10 each day. They are free to use the wages however way they wish. For instance, inmates can save it or use it to purchase utilities in the local shop.
Even better, inmates at Bastoy receive a monthly stipend of around $125 for food. Inmates who work in the kitchen serve dinner daily. Notably, the prison does not offer breakfast and lunch. Therefore, prisoners must buy cooking supplies from the local shop to sook at home. Some houses have personal kitchens, while other inmates stay in cottages with shared kitchens.
The current governor of Bastoy Correctional Facility, Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, says the prison seeks to boost offenders’ self-esteem and change their lives. He points out that typical prisons make the inmates feel and think of themselves as useless and nobody cares. Bastoy prison, on the other hand, offers the inmates a chance of hope. He continues to explain that locked-down jails treat offenders like animals or robots. Inmates in such prisons move from station to station with zero choices. However, at Bastoy, incarcerated people learn how to make choices and become better people in their societies.
Inmates at this facility, as already alluded, can access education activities. Usually, learning activities occur in a building near the island’s center. The most outstanding one is the computer programs that most inmates find interesting. For instance, 3D printing for objects such as car models.
At the facility, prisoners live in cottages, eat food cooked by a chef, and enjoy a sauna. At night, only five guards remain at the prison grounds to oversee the 115 inmates.
Bastoy prison aims to rehabilitate its inmates. Inmates coexist peacefully together, work, and depend on each other for some resources.
Recreational Services
Regular prisons dictate the kind of life inmates can live during incarceration. On the other hand, Bastoy Correctional Facility encourages its population to learn how to fill their days with activities.
Some of the activities inmates can indulge in during their free time include Fishing, Football, Gym with training equipment, Gym hall with equipment, Indoor climbing wall, Spinning, Cycling, and Running (running group). Others include:
- Participation in activities outside prison such as culture, sports, and outdoor activities
- Movie room with a large screen
- Walking path around the island that has rare plants and birds
- Inmates can borrow various games, instruments, and equipment
- Concerts, courses, events, and lectures announced on the weekly activities
- Soda Machine
Personal Effects
Unlike other facilities, inmates at this prison are at liberty of bringing various items to the facility during admission. The personal property typically comprises private clothes, a maximum of 32 inches TV, DVD player, MP3 player, and other items related to their hobbies. The inmate is responsible for keeping all the personal effects during incarceration. However, the prison prohibits inmates from owning a cellphone or camera.
Incarcerated individuals must keep expensive items, for instance, jewelry, outside prison.
Prisoner Escapes
Prisoners must check in a couple of times a day to ensure they are within the island. Typically, counting the inmates is a mandatory procedure at the facility. Additionally, because of the need for control and security, counting is a high-priority activity. The aim is to take care of the inmate’s safety and ensure the prison knows the number of prisoners on the island at all times. The reformatory conducts the count four times a day at stipulated times. Here, only 2.4km acts as their barrier to escape. Therefore, running is as easy as an inmate stealing a prison boat and sailing to the mainland.
Unexpectedly, inmates will try to escape given the favorable and comfortable conditions at the facility. However, there have been escape attempts. One inmate tried to swim to the mainland but got stranded halfway and had to call for help from rescuers. Another inmate attempted to escape by boat, but the prison authorities recaptured him on the mainland.
A significant number of offenders do not wish to leave the facility before their sentence ends. As already mentioned, a failed escape attempt leads to transfer to a harsher correctional institution. Additionally, they receive added time to their sentences.
Typically, Nilsen talks to the offenders during booking and admission to the facility. Part of the orientation includes that when the prisoner successfully escapes and reaches the mainland, they can borrow or pay for a phone to call the facility to confirm their safety to avoid sending guards for a search. Guards do not carry weapons during the night guard to prevent provoking the inmates to look for arms.
Another surprising fact regarding security is that when prisoners are almost completing their sentence, the facility allows them to leave the island for work. Other prisoners go study on the mainland.