In the first 14 years of Norway's Highest Security Department (SHS), their version of solitary confinement, they only had to put 11 prisoners there! [0]
The Wikipedia descriptions of Anders Breivik's confinement describe SHS [1]
According to a recent Business Insider video [2]:
- "With few exceptions, judges can only sentence criminals to a maximum of 21 years" which is less then these three men did in solitary!
- "In Norway, only 20% of prisoners return to jail. Compared to the US where 76.6% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years."
Which is even more impressive when you learn that as of August of 2014 Norway's incarceration rate was 75 per 100,000 people, in contrast to 707 per 100,000 in the U.S. [3]
So we Americans incarcerate almost 10 times as many people as Norway with a recidivism rate more than 3.8 times as high as Norway - clearly our focus on "reasonable cost" is justifiable!</sarcasm>
The Wikipedia descriptions of Anders Breivik's confinement describe SHS [1]
According to a recent Business Insider video [2]:
- "With few exceptions, judges can only sentence criminals to a maximum of 21 years" which is less then these three men did in solitary!
- "In Norway, only 20% of prisoners return to jail. Compared to the US where 76.6% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years."
Which is even more impressive when you learn that as of August of 2014 Norway's incarceration rate was 75 per 100,000 people, in contrast to 707 per 100,000 in the U.S. [3]
So we Americans incarcerate almost 10 times as many people as Norway with a recidivism rate more than 3.8 times as high as Norway - clearly our focus on "reasonable cost" is justifiable!</sarcasm>
[0]: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#Prison_...
[2]: http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-norways-luxurious-maxi...
[3]: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-...
--- edited to separate bullet points