"Anders Behring Breivik—the far-right terrorist and mass murderer who is surely the most reviled man in Norway—lives in a two-story suite with a kitchen where he can cook his own meals; a pleasant outdoor yard; and a TV room with armchairs, Xbox, and scenic photos on the walls.
The contents of the rooms, however, are carefully chosen and arranged for security purposes. Appearances to the contrary, this is a supermaximum-security unit, which has been purpose-built for Breivik by the Kriminalomsorgen—the Norwegian Correctional Service—at its Ringerike Prison.
Ringerike lies just across a broad lake from Utoye island, where on July 22, 2011—fifteen years ago today—Breivik shot to death 69 people, including 33 children, at a Labour Party summer camp, after killing eight others with a bomb blast in Oslo. To this day, Breivik maintains his virulently anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, White supremacist beliefs, and desires to spread his message of hate to the world. For this reason, his communications with both other incarcerated people and the outside world are almost entirely prohibited.
But throughout his imprisonment, Norway has gone to great lengths to mitigate the harmful impact of Breivik’s isolation by providing him with comfortable surroundings and with as much human interaction as can be provided by specially trained prison staff, who are assigned to talk with Breivik, join him in games of cards, and offer him every possible opportunity for rehabilitation, whether he embraces them or not.
I toured Ringerike last fall along with a group made up primarily of U.S. correctional officials and staff, as part of an immersion program on Norway’s famously humane and demonstrably effective prison system. The program is run by the public health organization Amend at UCSF, which seeks to promote positive, evidence-based “culture change” within America’s prisons."
Read more about author Jean Casella's visit to Ringerike Prison in Norway and what she learned during her time with the Amend team.