A key element of independence is learning best practices from around the world (and learning from mistakes too), so it’s worth taking a look at the current situation surrounding prisoners and rehabilitation in different countries.
I’ve opted for a range of different administrative arrangements including control by the central government, devolved/federal state control, shared responsibilities and others.
I’ll start with a summary of how things are in Wales to set a marker for comparison.
For clarity, the “reoffending rate” generally means the proportion of convicted criminals (custodial and non-custodial) who are re-convicted within 6 months to 3 years of release/conviction – though some nations may count this differently.
The most appropriate comparisons in this exercise are perhaps Scotland and Ireland – which have been covered in a bit more detail than the others.
Norway is often held up as the go-to example of a progressive, humane approach to imprisonment and rehabilitation of offenders – but how much of that is true?
To a certain extent, it is true. Norway’s policy concerning imprisonment revolves around the principle of “normality”. This means that only a prisoner’s liberty has been taken away by the courts and the conditions in prison should be as normal to conditions outside the prison as is reasonably possible (as no other rights have been taken away).
The process of reintegration with society also starts from the moment of conviction. Norwegian prisons are generally less institutionalised than prisons here and they tend to be smaller with low inmate populations. Shorter prison sentences may also be commuted to house arrest and community sentencing.
So what we commonly hear in the UK press is that Norwegian prisons resemble holiday camps where inmates can come and go from their “cells” as they please, fill their time with hobbies and scheduled work and wear their own clothes.
Most of that seems to be true, but what it lacks in regimented institutionalisation it makes up for in forcing inmates to make the right choices. As a result, Norway has one of the lowest reoffending rates in the world.
That approach may be a product of Norwegian culture and politics (the change from a punitive to a restorative approach came as a result of campaigning) and not something you would be able to 100% replicate here.
The public face of the Norwegian justice system may also mask some elements that present a different picture. Norway hasn’t always had such a progressive approach to imprisonment and they used to be as focused on security and institutionalisation as our system.
High-security prisons still exist with guards, tall walls and multiple fences – though they may look different. A large number of Norwegian prisons are fairly old and a place at some of the newer prisons may cost twice that as one in Wales. While the age of criminal responsibility is higher, there’s less of a distinction between a juvenile and adult offender, meaning in Norway 15-to-18-year-olds could be sent to prison (though the offence has to be particularly serious).
There’s also an emerging theme around the increasing number of foreign nationals being detained in Norwegian (and other Nordic) prisons, who it’s believed don’t receive the same humane treatment as Norwegian prisoners, dubbed “crimmigration“. Norway opened its first all-foreign national prison in 2013.
