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.
The Danish share a similar philosophy regarding its prison systems as its Nordic neighbours – though it’s perhaps closer to where we are when compared to Norway
The system is a bit more humane and less focused on punishment and security than prisons in England and Wales, but there remain problems with overcrowding and treatment of foreign nationals in the Danish prison system.
There’s a presumption in favour of prisoners serving out their sentences in open prisons – where they live lives as normally to the outside world as is possible (as in Norway) – yet at the end of 2021, Denmark was renting prison space in Kosovo for non-EU detainees awaiting deportation.
One of the common features of the “Nordic model” of criminal justice is the provision of smaller, locally-based facilities over the “mega-prisons” we’ve started to see in England and Wales or the “supermax” prisons in the United States.
As in Norway, there are hints that foreign inmates are treated differently in the Danish prison system than nationals. There’s been criticism of the increasing use of extended periods of isolation in Danish prisons too.
