Norway's First Ecological Prison

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The minimum-security Bastoey Prison, on a lush island south of Oslo, this week claimed to have achieved its 10-year goal of being the world's first ecological prison.

The prison, without locked gates or barbed wire, has often been compared to a summer camp, and now operates with solar panels, wood-fire heating instead of oil, strict recycling and ecological food production.

The idea is to help the roughly 115 prisoners learn important values, such as protecting the environment and respecting others, before they return to society.

"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, has long been in sharp contrast to the grim vision of prisons with barred doors that slam shut with a clang during lock-downs. It is lush green in summer, with beaches and an adjacent nature preserve.

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Inmates live in normal houses, without being locked in, and are responsible for the care of about 200 chickens, eight horses, 40 sheep, and 20 cows, tending the fields, picking berries and fishing for food from the prison's 31-foot (9.3-meter) boat.

All of the prison's agricultural products are raised without artificial chemicals, such as insecticide 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 basic 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 in a news release.

At a ceremony on Monday to celebrate the prison achieving its ecological prison goal, Justice Minister Knut Storberget said the prison was "a symbol that it is possible to think differently. ... We need alternatives to prison, and different prison alternatives."

Norway does not use the death penalty, and the maximum prison sentence is 21 years. Few prisoners serve the entire term.

To help prepare them for their release, inmates have great freedoms within a specified area. They can study, seek counseling, and even enjoy playing tennis, having their own TV, and swimming in the waters around the island, some 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of the capital.

In a recent interview with the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten, an inmate who asked to only be identified as Knut, said in his previous, maximum-security prison, he felt steadily more depressed and psychologically troubled.

"When I got to Bastoey, it was like I got air under my wings," the 41-year old — serving a sentence for narcotics smuggling — told the newspaper.

With 69 employees, Bastoey claims to be Norway's most understaffed prison, which Alnaes has said is just the way they want it, since prisoners from the apply for the chance to serve their sentence there.

The prison's Internet site asks hopefuls:"Is Bastoey the place for you?"