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Norway Island Prison Goes
Ecological
DOUG MELLGREN
AP
Wednesday Aug 29, 2007
OSLO, Norway — The minimum-security Bastoey
Prison, a lockup on a lush island that has often been compared
to a summer camp, now has claimed a new distinction: the world's
first ecological prison.
Without locked gates or barbed wire, the prison operates with
solar panels, wood-fire heating instead of oil, strict recycling
and eco-friendly food production _ a 10-year project officials
say was aimed at helping the roughly 115 prisoners learn values
such as protecting the environment and respecting others.
"Our job is to create the best possible development opportunities
for the individual, and lay the foundation for possible changes,"
said prison director Oeyvind Alnaes.
The Bastoey facility, where inmates include murderers and rapists,
is nothing like the grim vision of prisons with barred doors that
slam shut with a resounding clang during lock-downs. It is a lush
green in summer, with beaches and an adjacent nature preserve.
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Inmates live in houses, are not locked in and are responsible
for the care of about 200 chickens, eight horses, 40 sheep and
20 cows. They also tend the fields, pick berries and fish on the
prison's 30-foot boat.
The island is about 1 1/2 miles from the mainland, but that's
not what keeps inmates in. Few escape from Norway's most pleasant
prison because that could mean returning to a maximum-security
unit.
All of the prison's agricultural products are raised without
artificial chemicals, such as insecticides or man-made fertilizers,
and with humane treatment of livestock. It also strives to be
energy self-sufficient, using renewable power.
Alnaes said the prison's philosophy is what he called "human
ecology."
"Living in an environment that gives them individual responsibility,
challenges and demands ... can motivate inmates to change their
behavior," he said.
At a ceremony Monday to celebrate the prison achieving its ecological
goal, Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget said it was "a
symbol that it is possible to think differently. ... We need alternatives
to prison, and different prison alternatives."
Norway does not have the death penalty and the maximum prison
sentence is 21 years. Few prisoners serve the entire term.
At Bastoey, inmates can study, seek counseling, play tennis,
have their own TV and swim in the waters around the island, some
45 miles south of the capital, Oslo.
An inmate serving a sentence for narcotics smuggling told the
Oslo newspaper Aftenposten that at his previous maximum-security
prison he grew depressed and psychologically troubled.
"When I got to Bastoey, it was like I got air under my wings,"
the prisoner, identified only as Knut, 41, told the Oslo daily
Aftenposten.
Prisoners must apply for the chance to serve their sentence at
Bastoey, which asks applicants on its Web site:" "Is
Bastoey the place for you?"
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