Washington state prisons look to Norway for ways to curb prolific offenders

Norway’s prison system is often touted as both the most progressive and most effective in the world, and Washington state’s own Department of Corrections visited the country recently for guidance.

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Norway boasts an incarceration rate of just 75 prisoners per every 100,000 people, with just a 20% recidivism rate. It’s a much different story in the United States, where 707 out of every 1000,000 people are incarcerated, with a whopping 76.6% rate of re-offending after prisoners are released.

What does Norway do differently? The country’s prison facilities give inmates their own bathrooms, kitchens, and more. Prisoners cook their own meals, and are allowed access to knives to do that cooking. Many have even established friendships with guards.

That acts in stark comparison to how prisons operate in the U.S., where its more as punitive than rehabilitative. This is something Washington State DOC head Stephen Sinclair thinks need to change.

“There is a public expectation of justice being served in prison, and that’s handed down by the courts — it’s really a term of confinement,” Sinclair told KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show. “But on the other side of this, it’s liberty — it’s about changing people’s lives, and giving them the skills and tools they need to be more successful.”

Given that the average prison sentence in the U.S. is around two years, a large majority of inmates reenter society at some point. Sinclair wants Washington to hone in on that.

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Beyond that, it’s also about ensuring that offenders have the tools to ensure they don’t simply end up in a revolving door of justice, much in the same way we’ve seen in Seattle and King County in recent months.

“The overall game really is about reducing recidivism and preventing future crimes, [and] creating one less victim every way we can,” Sinclair said. “The greater objective to be achieved is truly influencing individual lives so they make better choices.”

Washington state also isn’t aiming to simply apply Norway’s philosophy wholesale.

“Our goal is not to make Washington [into] Norway,” Sinclair pointed out. “Our goal is to bring those principles that we can enact that would improve our system.”

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