How did they get from Vikings to *THIS*? I've heard the phrase "feminization of culture" before, now I've SEEN it! Come on Norway.

Forgive me then I was misinformed I only remember hearing from somewhere that he killed arab children thank you for correcting me also the pleading for self defence thing is real

Nothing wrong with "feminization". I don't really the macho masculine "let's bash each other's heads in" mindset deserves another 160.000 plus years, really :).

Otherwise - with just a quick check on google / wikipedia ... this is a low-security prison. It's unlikely you'll find people guilty of the "really nasty & irredeemable danger to society" type there.

Heh, nahhh... I was just hoping we could meet somewhere in the middle :)

I agree. It sounds like this is something that prisoners will be doing towards the end of their sentence, and it sounds like a great way of getting them back into society. Fair work for the prisoners.

He disliked Arabs,(and people who did not, and people from other cultures in general), and this was his twisted way of protesting against immigration. Judging by his reactions to things, he was almost assuredly a psychopath, and that was probably not his only mental problem.

It seem to, for the most part, work out pretty darn well for them. Norway is (according to one happiness scale), the happiest country in the world. The population enjoys life far more in Norway than in most other countries. The crime rate is low, people feel safe and it is pretty much a country to be envied.

Well I know whats the right kind of prison Breivik should be sent to and its not Guantanamo Bay I think he should be sent to a Stalin-era Russian Gulag

The Alcatraz Comune, i bet all the SF hippies wished they had one. ;)

Pffffffffffffft. This is nothing.

Here in America, ah, er, I mean the USA, you know what we do with our criminals???

Promote them, pay them bonuses, and sometimes elect them to public office.

Now THAT'S a radical way to reform criminals, let me tell you. I know this because.... it's not working. The assholes are still criminals. Highly paid, well protected, criminals.

Oh, unless you're poor, and from another country, and happen to lighly hit a couple of people with your car when you're running for your life.

Those "criminals" get put away for years. And it ain't none of this live in houses and go to work like you're a real person prison either. You get to look forward to all kinds of fun things like, rape, mutilation, degradation, extreme violence, and often times death.

America, FUCK YEAH!!!

One guy had murdered multiple people and chainsawed their corpses to dispose of them. I don't know that I'd qualify that as "weaksauce" criminals.

According to one account he spent the rest of his life on said island... working in the woods with a chainsaw:)
Between seeing violent rape as an acceptable deterrent to crime in the US and this style of prison in Norway I know which one I'd pick...

Interesting prison.

"Okay, Lars, this is your first parole hearing. Anything to say for yourself?"
"Umm, I've been bad and need more vacati... er, rehabilitation?"

So this is where Breivik is headed?

I'd be all for that place for non-violent offenders - but murderers, rapists, child molesters? That's just not right.

Why isn't it right? If they can get up and look after themselves they're not a danger to society and are attending their therapy, etc. it's just about perfect. They have work that is meaningful to them (growing their own food, etc.), that is great. They get to have as close to a decent and free life as possible while they're being rehabilitated.

As for Breveik, he may need to end up in a different facility, I don't think seriously mentally ill people go there, I could be wrong though.

Btw, the whole "child molester" thing is kind of a pet peeve. That crime has an excruciatingly low recidivism rate, even in the US. With treatment the vast majority will never re-offend (in fact re-offenders seem to be limited to the very small subset of serial offenders in that case). I know it's icky and strange, but we'd all being doing ourselves a favor by "getting over it", i.e. force offenders and victims to get treatment, offenders are removed from society during said treatment and then be done with it.

Well, looks like Norway is ahead in social issues yet again. It would be good if the rest of the world would follow their example. Prisons like this actually drop the crime rate, and not increase it.

Norway really puts my homecountry (France) to shame...

But in France, politicians like to have a (somewhat) high crime rate, it helps to convince uninformed citizens that they always need more and more repressive laws...

No. Not seeing any polar bears around should be a dead giveaway.

On the flip side:

Yesterday a 43 years old Finnish man stabbed a 18 years old girl to death in broad daylight. He didn't know the girl before, he didn't have a criminal record, he wasn't intoxicated or using drugs... by his own words, he had just decided that morning that he will kill someone so that he would be taken to mental hospital prison, because he felt he couldn't manage alone anymore.

http://translate.google.fi/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hs.fi%2Fkotimaa%2FPoliisi%2BVarkauden%2Bpuukottaja%2Bvalitsi%2Buhrinsa%2Bsattumanvaraisesti%2B%2Fa1305560677860

(sorry for the poor Google translation, "Theft" in this case is the name of the location where this happened (Varkaus, which also translates to "theft")

Playing devil's advocate here: maybe he wouldn't have done it if he knew he'd get into a hellhole for his deed, and not in a pampering mental hospital (which he might miss anyway, actually)?

But yeah, that is still a poor argument, and on the whole I agree on the model of trying to rehabilitate criminals to productive citizens, instead of just punishing them and locking them away out of sight. The real question is, why wasn't that man getting mental treatment already before his deed? I think this question will be asked over and over again in Finnish press in the coming weeks. A couple of years ago there was a very similar case here, I think even the motive was the same.