[Rowe] Halden Maximum Security Prison, Norway.
Home to violent criminals...
[guards yelling]
...rapists,
and murderers.
-[Rowe] What did you do with the body? -I buried it.
[Rowe] But this controversial prison doesn't just lock the inmates up.
Its mission is to turn their lives around.
I'm slightly unhinged by the lack of bars.
[Rowe] My name is Raphael Rowe,
and I'm spending a week banged up in this Norwegian prison
to find out how they do it.
But it's not my first time behind bars.
I was convicted in the UK of a murder I didn't commit
and sentenced to life with no parole.
Now, I'm traveling the globe to discover what life is really like
inside some of the world's toughest prisons.
Set in a pine forest 15 miles from the border with Sweden,
Halden Prison is a state-of-the-art maximum security facility.
Purpose-built in 2010,
it holds some of Norway's most dangerous inmates:
murderers, drug traffickers, and violent criminals.
And I'm about to be locked up here.
Do we lock up prisoners and throw away the key?
Do we punish prisoners because of what they've done?
Or do we rehabilitate these prisoners?
[Rowe] Halden gives these hardened criminals
the best second chance they'll ever get.
And it seems to work.
Their reoffending rates are the lowest in the world.
But at a massive cost of $120,000 per prisoner, per year,
Halden's methods and philosophy have courted controversy.
I'm told that this is a place that focuses on rehabilitation,
and, for me, rehabilitating offenders, rehabilitating criminals' mind-set
is probably one of the toughest challenges any prison around the world faces.
[Rowe] In Norway, the maximum sentence anyone can get is 21 years,
no matter how horrific the crime.
So, rehabilitation is essential.
With a reoffending rate of just 30%,
I want to find out how they do things differently.
I'm now inside what looks like a concrete dead zone.
One gate's closed behind me, and a second huge gate is opening up.
This is the last time you walk on free soil.
This is prison soil.
[Rowe] I've been checked into a lot of prisons,
and it's never a pleasant experience.
-[guard 1] Hello. -Hello.
Hi.
[Rowe] This is the first time I've had a welcoming handshake from a guard.
It's all very civilized. So, what happens next?
Now it's time to register you in the system, book you in.
And then you have to take all your clothes off,
and you get new clothes off us.
Yeah, I'm not new to that,
but I never look forward to it. That's for sure.
Why are you putting these gloves on?
It's just to keep us clean from whatever any inmate have been through.
So, if I was a very dirty inmate or...
-Yeah. -All right.
Good. That's a good sign.
I thought maybe you were putting them on for other, kind of internal searches.
We're not allowed to do that.
[Rowe] The strip search is normally the first chance
for guards to exert their power and control over a new arrival.
[guard 2] Thank you.
[guard 1] Now we have new clothes for you.
That's the best part.
[Rowe] Okay.
I suspect that you get lots of guys coming through here
who don't wanna take their clothes off because they're hiding something.
We have to use force then.
But we are contacting more people,
so we have more officers to handle it better.
In my experience of prison,
it's been a conflict between both prisoners and prison staff.
The battle is constant.
We're not here to punish you in prison.
That you're in prison is the punishment.
You see?
If you are here for ten years, and we punish you for ten years,
who are you gonna be when you go out to the freedom?
[Rowe] This is a new experience for me.
By this stage, I'm usually feeling humiliated and angry.
[Rowe] Already, I've been disarmed.
It's a tough thing for a criminal because you expect confrontation,
but what you get...
from the moment you arrive in this prison, is...
I hesitate to say kindness, but you definitely get respect.
[Rowe] New prisoners like me are assigned to Halden's A-block
to make sure they are drug free.
Here they are observed and psychiatrically assessed by the authorities,
before being moved into the main prison population.
-[Rowe] So, this is me? -[guard] This is you.
[Rowe] Wow...
-[guard] Here, you have the bathroom. -Okay.
It's unbelievable. It's like an en suite.
I've never seen anything like it. It's amazing.
Okay. So, I'm in here on my own, 'cause there's one bed, one prisoner.
[guard] It's only for you.
You have your TV here and closet to put your clothes and stuff.
And a fridge here.
-A fridge? -In here.
-I have a fridge. -Yes.
[Rowe] This is better than some hotels I've stayed in.
What do you expect of me as a new prisoner on this wing?
Um, it's to follow the rules we have, to follow the routines
and, uh... just behave.
-Okay? Good luck for now. -Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
-Thank you. Bye-bye. -Bye.
Wow!
Criminals' experience of coming into a prison cell
is that they are... They are under attack.
They're being punished. They're being confined.
That's what prison's about.
This is saying to you, "Relax."
It doesn't look like or feel like a prison cell.
But you'd be fooled if you think coming into a cell
where you have these privileges is not tough.
Why?
For people who have experienced nothing but shit in their lives,
all their lives,
to be treated like this...
is gonna challenge everything they've learned.
[Rowe] And for me, that can be tougher.
I'm blown away by what I've seen so far,
and I'm keen to know what my fellow inmates on A-block make of it.
How you doing?
-Raphael. -Robin.
-Robin? -Nice to meet you.
So, this is very different to what I'm used to.
-Okay. -Yeah.
How long you've been in for and what are you in prison for?
[in Norwegian] So, I have served three years
and have 30 different cases.
Everything from breaking and entering, to theft,
robbery, violence...
and an attempted murder when I was 14, which they have included in this sentence.
[Rowe] Robin says he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol
when he stabbed a friend in the neck.
Most of his three years have been spent in other prisons.
He's been on Halden's A-block for three months.
[Rowe] I can't help noticing, Robin,
that you've got quite a lot of scars on your arms.
It also suggests to me that you've had a troubled time.
What's the story?
It's evidence of hard...
hard nights and hard days.
I've gone through a pretty harsh process...
alone.
Broken myself down to zero and then built myself back up, bit by bit,
to be fit to live the life I want to live outside the bars
without drugs and crime.
And in that process,
I've had to face my own demons.
[Rowe] Most inmates spend only a limited time on A-block
before moving to the main prison, where they can participate in rehabilitation.
So, why are you still here? Are you still under assessment?
Or do you not want to go over there?
No, I haven't wished to apply for a transfer over there.
I have served three years now.
So, for me, it's really like... the same.
It doesn't matter what ward you are serving in a way.
Prison is prison.
[Rowe] I think it was quite telling that he said
that he's been in this A-wing assessment unit,
and he didn't feel the need to move from here to other parts of the prison.
And no matter how much you offer, as a prison,
unless they themselves make that decision that they want to change their behavior,
you can't get inside and reach them.
Robin's refusal to engage with the system
is typical of many inmates I've met around the world.
It shows the scale of the challenge Halden faces,
when trying to transform a prisoner's mind-set.
It's my second day in Halden.
After a period of assessment,
inmates who choose to engage with the system
are transferred into the main prison population.
I'm escorted to C-block by prison guard Amund.
[Rowe] And what is the C-unit?
It's a unit for people who want to work.
And so what types of prisoners do you have in C-block?
[Amund] We got everything in C-unit, also in the B-units.
We don't put only murderers, only violent people.
We kind of mix people,
because it's not important what they've done.
Most important is the human behind the action.
[Rowe] Normally, I'd be wary of walking into a new maximum security block.
But I imagine it'll be different here.
So, would you describe the men in here as dangerous and violent?
No, they don't show us that side.
-Despite committing murder and other-- -Yeah.
It's like when they come to prison,
they are acting kind of different outside, in their own environment,
maybe affected with drugs and stuff also.
But in here, you see another type of guy.
-Let's see 'em. -Yeah.
Hello.
[Rowe] As I suspected,
this is not like any prison block I've ever been on.
[Rowe] This is very different, isn't it?
-You are not a prisoner? -Yeah.
-Hello. Nice. I'm Raphael. -Yeah.
Is that the right thing to do for a prisoner
who's here on the first day, to greet a prison officer?
-Oh, yeah. -[Rowe] That's normal, is it?
This doesn't feel normal,
a prison officer sitting down on the sofa, having a chat with prisoners.
It's like that here.
Okay.
[Rowe] Among the inmates, I'm introduced to Richard,
who's recently been extradited back to Norway
from a Swedish maximum security lockup.
For me, this is a prison like no other prison I've ever been in.
And I've been in quite a few prisons.
[laughs]
Um...
It is very different from Sweden.
Like you said yourself, when you come, you are greeting a prison officer.
That was not common there, you know?
You can get beat up for things like that, you know?
But here, it's okay, you know?
So, I was very shocked when I come here.
The first... The first thing they did was greeting me.
I thought exactly the same thing.
I came in handcuffs, came out of the prison van.
And I'm taken in, and the officer shook my hand
before he took the cuffs off.
-It kind of unbalances you, doesn't it? -Yeah.
It makes you feel like, "Hold on.
This is supposed to be a confrontation. This is not supposed to be...
It's not supposed to be like that."
[Rowe] Prisoners at Halden are positively encouraged
to fraternize with guards.
So, I take the chance to ask Maria
about the philosophy behind the friendly faces.
What I've noticed is you and other staff
have quite friendly relationships with the prisoners.
Yeah, I think so, too. And it's important.
Why is it important?
I think that we need to be good examples
in terms of how they're supposed to treat others.
It reflects how they should behave on the outside.
We want the prison system to be as normal as possible.
So, it should be like that.
You don't think we should lock 'em up for many hours of the day?
-No. No. -More punishment, not rehabilitation?
I think that only creates bad neighbors.
[Rowe] It's called the normality principle.
The idea is, if you treat people like animals, you get animals.
And if you treat even the most hardened criminals
with dignity and respect,
you might just get a decent, law-abiding human being.
This feels too normal for me.
Here we are, in prison, a maximum security prison,
having a cup of coffee in the morning,
as if we're in your flat somewhere in Norway.
You know, there is nothing here that reminds me of prison,
which I find bizarre, but, at the same time, reassuring.
Um... Do you have family outside?
Yeah, I have a family back in Sweden,
-with my wife and three kids. -Oh, gosh.
What is your sentence, then?
-So, you got how many years? -Seventeen years.
-So, you got 17 years? -Yeah.
-What was that for? -Murder.
[Rowe] What...
When I say what kind of murder, I mean what was your...
offense? Did you kill another man?
Yeah, it was another man.
I don't wanna talk so much about it.
It was heavy enough.
I'm a convicted murderer, but...
I don't look at myself like a killer, you know?
Because what's happened there happened for a reason.
It's difficult to describe it with words, you know, but...
One action doesn't have to define you as a human being, you know?
-If you know what I meant... -I do.
[Rowe] Richard is so unusual. I did not expect him to be a killer.
Interestingly, he didn't mention once
what the victim's family of the crime he committed,
what they're going through, whether he's remorseful.
So, I'll be interested to find out just a bit more about where his head's at.
[Rowe] Richard has only recently arrived here,
and, like me, he's still adapting to the new regime.
Here at Halden, inmates are expected to cook,
clean, study, and go to work,
just like they'll have to in the outside world.
My first job is to help Theo, C-block's "ganggutt" or "hallway boy,"
who's responsible for the upkeep of the living unit.
[Theo] We don't do it with water. We do it with soap,
but I can show you later. First, I close all the doors.
[Rowe] So, all the prisoners have now gone to work, have they?
If you don't work, they lock you in your cell, I think, like this one.
You can see on the...
This one is open, so he's at work, and he's closed.
-Right. -You can see...
-So, handle's up, they're behind the door. -They're not working, yeah.
-That's the ganggutt. -That's the ganggutt.
-[Theo] First, you do the dust. -[Rowe] Okay.
-Okay, I'll do the dust. -Yeah.
[Rowe] Okay. So, when you've done the dust, you mop.
God, there's not much dust on this floor, is there?
No, I keep it tight. [chuckles]
[Rowe] Yeah. Yes, you do. How's my technique?
-[Theo] Very good. -[Rowe] Very good technique, yeah.
[Theo] Yeah, you can come back if you want.
Yeah?
[Rowe] Originally from Holland,
Theo is part of the 40% of foreign criminals in Halden.
So, how long have you been in this Norwegian prison, Halden?
-Two years and a month. -And how long are you doing?
-Six years. Yeah. -Six years?
-What was that for? -Hashish.
-Hashish? -Yeah, smuggling hashish.
-Ah. -Two hundred kilo.
-Two hundred kilo? -Yeah.
What was that value worth? I've no idea.
Yeah, well, they say it's like for €1 million something,
but I think then you sell it on the street, like little bags.
-You get a high price-- -Million Euro... First offense?
-For drugs, yes. -Right, so you're a career criminal?
No, I was a football hooligan.
-Were you? -Yeah.
-No way. -Yeah.
-Wow, I would never have thought that. -No, that's true, but...
-But, then, prison is full of surprises. -Yes.
Does it feel like you're in prison?
I understand your question,
because no bars, and it's not like a prison-prison.
But still, you're inside.
Yeah, and so you cannot go anywhere.
And you miss your family.
And so that's... It's still a prison.
So, it doesn't matter that you're in an environment that is
treating prisoners with humanity, dignity, respect...
Their focus is on rehabilitating people.
It could be a palace,
but if you cannot get out, it's still punishment.
[Rowe] Despite the illusion of normality,
the authorities take no chances
with what are still potentially dangerous inmates.
With 350 staff to 250 prisoners,
they're under constant surveillance.
Having helped Theo with the cleaning,
I'm escorted to the kitchens by guard Maria,
where I've been allocated a job helping to cook food for the inmates,
alongside another foreign prisoner, called Emari.
[Rowe] So, what's your job in this kitchen?
Well, right now, I'm a cook student.
-I'm in my last year and a half... -Right.
-...of taking my culinary degree. -Okay.
So, now we're making a fish casserole.
[Rowe] Yeah, it does smell very fishy in here.
[Emari] Yeah.
[Rowe] Okay, I can do that.
So, you've just gotta fill this bucket up, have you?
[Emari] Both of these buckets.
-How long have you been here, Emari? -I have two years left.
-Right, two years. -I've already done five years.
-You've already done five years? -Yeah, I've done five.
And forgive my investigative skills,
but I do detect you have an American accent.
-Yes, I do. -What are you doing in Norway?
It's a long story,
but I moved to Norway to play professional basketball.
What went wrong?
-This is a very sensitive subject for me. -Okay.
-Actually... -Okay.
But do you mind me asking what you got your sentence for?
Actually... yeah, I'm a little uncomfortable, at the moment,
talking about that, but...
I don't want you to tell me the detail, just the offense.
Is it for murder, robbery, rape, theft?
It was rape.
-It was rape. -I was... Yeah, I was convicted for that.
And what's it been like for you in prison in Norway?
Prison has definitely changed me and the way that I look at things,
-the way that I look at life. -In what way? What do you mean?
I definitely appreciate more the little things.
Like?
Like just being able to go outside and take a walk on my own.
Just being able to get up and walk out my door.
And they say that Norway has good prisons here,
but, at the end of the day...
your freedom taken away is your freedom taken away,
no matter how good a place is. Your freedom is gone.
[Rowe] The kitchens provide inmates with just one meal a day.
If they want anything else to eat, they're expected to cook for themselves.
They use money from their prison jobs
to buy food from Halden's very own supermarket.
-[Rowe] Bloody hell. -It's a real shop.
[Rowe] It is a real shop, isn't it? This is crazy.
[Rowe] I'm being shown around by fellow South Londoner Ashley,
who's on remand for a $280,000 warehouse heist.
We come here once a week. Everyone comes down here.
That's it. Pick up your basket, have a mooch around,
and pick up what you want, basically.
They're selling anything. You get biscuits, shampoo,
deodorant, toothpaste...
-Everything but alcohol, I suppose. -Yeah, unfortunately, no Stella, mate.
Do you have money to buy this stuff, like proper cash?
[Ashley] No, no. We all... Everyone has a card.
-So, it's just a small card... -Right.
...has your bar code on it. The money's on your card, so it's not...
You don't handle money. Everything's just done electronically through the card.
Scan your card at the end, when you do your shopping, and that's it.
What's to stop you coming in here...
If you're a prolific shoplifter, what's to stop you coming in here
and doing what you do best,
which is lift something, put it in your pocket, and sneak out?
Don't ask me. I think that's probably why they don't have 'em in England,
'cause they'd get robbed blind.
Generally, everyone in there would be robbing it.
Every time they go in there, someone would be robbing something.
-They would, wouldn't they? -But here, you don't.
Listen, personally, I don't know anyone
that's even said anything about stealing something from here.
Or, you know, "I nicked a chocolate bar," or...
There's none of that, so it seems pretty honest
compared to most prisons. [chuckles]
[Rowe] The shop is another example of the normality principle,
the prison's philosophy
that gets inmates used to taking responsibility for themselves.
Back on C-block, I want to catch up with convicted killer Richard,
who is gradually getting used to Halden's methods.
-Is this your cell? -This is my room.
-This is your cell? -This is my cell.
-You call it a room, though? -Yeah. It's my room, my apartment.
I'm just kidding.
I'm actually studying to be an electrician, you know?
Okay, you're studying to be an electrician?
-Yeah. -You're training here?
Yeah, in school, you know?
-You do that every day, do you? -Yeah, every day I'm at school.
Yeah, this look like that, you know?
How often do you get out of your cell?
-I mean, once I'm locked down. -[Richard] Yeah.
[Rowe] How often will I get out of my cell here?
You can see here what I'm talking about.
If you don't work, you come out to eat breakfast.
Here, eight o'clock, you get locked down. Then you come out again at three o'clock.
You get to eat, and then you get locked in,
I'll say 3:45.
[Rowe] So, the incentive is to work,
or get out and do a course or something that you can benefit from.
Or else you just sit in your cell, where often, that is very bad.
-[Rowe] Yeah, it's bad for your mind. -Yeah.
-[Rowe] It's bad for you physically. -Yeah.
Bad for everything, you know?
[Rowe] Halden recognizes the importance of structure and routine
if they are to transform the criminal mind-set.
It may seem simple, but for inmates like Richard,
who have lived chaotic lives outside the prison walls,
this is a serious challenge.
It's either conform or spend the bulk of the day locked up and alone.
7:00 a.m., and just like in the outside world,
prisoners from B- and C-blocks head off to work.
But it's not just about teaching structure and routine.
-[Maria] You can go through. -Today, I'm going to the prison workshops,
where inmates learn practical skills to make them employable when they leave.
A real garage. Amazing.
[Rowe] With high-tech tools and equipment for the inmates to work with,
it looks like no expense has been spared.
This is crazy. I'm really impressed by what I'm seeing here.
These guys are underneath the cars, doing something. I don't know.
It looks like this guy's changing the exhaust.
This prison is very clever in creating a normal environment,
a working environment, just like you get outside.
And that is blowing my mind away.
[Rowe] When I was in prison, job training was extremely limited.
At Halden, it's not just mechanics.
Inmates are taught carpentry, printing and engineering.
I'm here to meet an inmate called Christian,
who, I'm told, is a repeat offender.
[Rowe] Nice to meet you.
Your hands are warm. You must be working on something hot.
-Welding. Hold this. No. -No.
I was just saying,
-it's a well-equipped workhouse, isn't it? -It is.
You were a mechanic or a trainee mechanic outside?
While doing drugs, actually. So, that's my problem: the drug problem.
And how long have you been using drugs?
Since 1997.
-So, 20 years. -20 years.
In and out of prison, in and out of prison.
So, when I'm inside, I'm clean. When I'm outside, I'm doing drugs,
stealing everything I see, so...
-Stealing to... -To support the drug habit, yeah.
How many years would you say you've done altogether?
-Eight years. -Eight years?
[sighs] Tough, isn't it?
[chuckles] Well, when we talk about it like this, it's actually kind of insane.
I'm not getting any younger.
This is my 13th sentence
and this is the 12th prison I'm in here, in Norway.
[Rowe] But at Halden, Christian feels he's finally turning his life around.
Why this prison? What is it about this prison, then?
This is for me, by far,
the best prison I've served my sentence in any place.
Here, you're presented with some opportunities
that you don't have in other prisons.
And they're very focused on education
and trying to make a meaningful prison stay,
-if that makes any sense at all. -Yeah, I know.
So, it's been hard work, but now I'm being released in six days, so...
-You're being released in six days? -Yes, in six days.
So, you've done your time.
I had been to prison for so many times and so many years.
So, I decided, "Okay, this time, I'm gonna try."
Christian is a typical criminal
who returns back and forth, back and forth, to prison.
He says this time, he's in a place that is helping him change.
A prison doesn't have to be tough
because of its poor conditions, or because of staff brutality
or inmate-on-inmate brutality.
One of the biggest challenges is changing the mind-set of a criminal.
[Rowe] Whether or not Christian succeeds in staying out of prison,
it's taken years of therapy and job training
to get him to this point of taking responsibility for his actions.
Back in C-unit, I'm meeting up with Richard,
who's only been in Halden for a few months,
to see where he is at in that process.
Richard's crime made news headlines across Scandinavia,
after he killed a rival drug dealer muscling in on his turf.
I'm not a cold-blooded murderer
that you just go out and shoot people, you know?
It was an accident that happened.
-Did you shoot the person you killed? -Yeah, I shoot the person.
Did the gun go off by accident?
Or did you pull, point and pull the trigger?
It was... I was... I had no intentions to kill this person, you know?
But this confrontation that became, you know...
got out of hand, you know?
So, that's why... That's why it happened, what's happened.
And what did you do? Give yourself up straight away? Did that help you?
No, no, actually... I did not.
It took seven months before they come and get me, police.
-Really? -Yeah.
So, you was in hiding, on the run? Or they--
No, they...
Actually, it was starting like a missing person case.
Did they not... What did you do, not run off?
Did they not discover the body, and then look for the culprit?
Well, they... They did not discover the body.
-What did you do with the body? -I buried it.
That sounds pretty cold-blooded to me, Richard. I mean, that's--
It sounds like that, but you know...
After what happened had happened, I had to deal with it in that situation,
because there was a lot of stuff going on at the time, you know?
Well, one thing led to another, and soon you become in...
in that position that you cannot get out of.
[Rowe] Richard's... He's a... He's a killer.
He shot and killed another man...
and buried the body...
and almost got away with the perfect murder.
[Rowe] Richard has a long way to go to change his mind-set.
But he will be released back into society.
Halden has till 2030 to transform him,
so he doesn't return to a life of drugs and crime.
Critics argue that cold-blooded killers, hardened criminals, and rapists
don't deserve all this time and money spent on them.
I mean, look at this place.
I mean, this has got to be worth
tens of thousands of pounds of recording equipment.
[drums playing]
[Rowe] It's a question I'm keen to put to Dutch drug smuggler Theo.
-How you doing, man? -Hello, how are you?
I'm very well. Are you good?
So, you're in here, making all this noise with these drums?
-That was me. -This is brilliant.
It's like out... It's really a studio, yeah.
How often do you get to come over here and use these drums?
-Two times a week, we have school. -Two times a week?
It is amazing, actually. I can see myself coming out of my cell,
wanting to come in here and...
-Enjoy yourself. -Yeah.
-Do you enjoy yourself here? -If I'm here, yes.
I can imagine people outside.
"How dare they spend this money on prisoners,
when the victim has lost everything because of what they stole
or because of the damage they caused that person."
Yeah, murder somebody, yeah.
I'm just thinking, "Who's got the better deal here?
The prisoner, who's gone to prison and can play drums in an expensive studio?
Or the victim, who is traumatized by the crime committed against them,
whatever that is?" It's great. Don't get me wrong--
But you don't want to lock them up and throw away the key.
-No. -Because you get then more aggression
when they come out.
Instead, they have something to do, in prison, that they like.
As long as there are prisons, I think there is this story of,
"Okay, how can we punish them?" And, "It's like a hotel."
But it's still the most crucial question being asked by anybody, isn't it?
Yeah, I think that's always going to be like this,
because still, like I told you two days ago...
you cannot get out.
You know, you're still locked in.
And you can have a studio and everything, but still you're...
Yeah, and you're still in jail.
[Rowe] For victims and people who believe in retribution,
Halden's methods can be hard to accept,
but the results are there for everyone to see.
Engaged and well-behaved prisoners, very few of whom will reoffend.
But how does the prison manage it?
How do they maintain the illusion of normality
while controlling some of the country's most serious criminals?
To find out, I want to spend more time with the guards.
I'm joining Amund in C-block's control room, known as the aquarium.
Is this the base for your fellow officers to monitor what goes on in the wing?
Yeah, we got one here, just sitting and counting,
and control of the numbers of inmates and where everybody are.
The other officers are working out in the hallway, with the inmates.
They're the ones who patrol the landings, meet and interact with...
-I use the term patrol. You? -Yeah, but...
No, it's strange for me to patrol because we don't use that.
We interact a lot.
-Okay. -We don't, like, go around
where they live, in the units, just watching.
Not standing in a corner like this and watching.
-Right. -We don't do that.
We interact, and that's the most important thing to do,
because then we can see if they are changing attitude,
if something's wrong, if something's going to happen.
We call it a kind of dynamic security.
[Rowe] This close, personal interaction is combined
with a network of cameras and a sophisticated monitoring system
that tracks prisoners' movements throughout the prison.
-Every inmate has their own card. -Right.
And we have a kind of scanning system every time they go out or in.
-So, they touch their card? -So, from the units--
-Is it like a bar code on it or something? -Yeah, like scanning.
That's what those little bar code guns are for.
[Amund] It is. And then it goes into the system,
and they kind of switch color, whether they're inside or outside,
or which building they are in.
And this is also their time schedule during daytime,
if they are going to work and which workplace they are going.
[Rowe] The only place inmates are not watched
is when they're locked in their cells.
But not all prisoners want to conform, and that's when the talking stops.
They look menacing, when you see them in this kind of RoboCop outfits?
They look quite frightening, don't they?
Yeah, it's supposed to look a little bit scary, of course.
But, also, it's for their protection
because we don't know what we go into.
How often do these guys get deployed? How often do you have inmates
that need to be taken out of the yard or from their cell?
Sometimes, we have inmates that we have to do this a lot,
because they won't stop being angry and trashing their cells.
We try to work like this, so we don't have to go this far,
by talking to the inmates a lot, being amongst them in the common areas.
We don't like to dress up like this, but if we have to, we have to.
[Rowe] The prison has a unique subterranean tunnel system
that offers rapid access to any part of the complex.
The guards here train for every eventuality.
I've agreed to play the role of a disruptive prisoner,
something I've got experience of.
I'm a bit worried about going down memory lane.
I've done this for real, and it's quite brutal.
It can be quite brutal.
And I suffered some really severe physical injuries
as a result of being extracted from a cell
not once, not twice, but quite a few times.
So, I'm already feeling a bit nervous
about what memories this is going to bring back
and how emotional I'm feeling at the moment.
But I understand why this is done.
-[Maria] Hi, Raphael. -[Rowe] Don't talk to me.
I don't want to know. Fuck off!
[Maria] If you don't listen to me, we have to come in and get you.
[Rowe] I don't care what you have to do. You do what you have to fucking do.
-It'll be worse for you. -[Rowe] I don't care.
-[Rowe] If you come in here... -Okay.
-...I'm going to smash you up, too. -[Maria] Okay.
[Rowe] So, piss off.
[Maria speaking Norwegian]
Check.
Go away. I don't want you in here. Get out.
No, no, no! Get off me, you bastards! Get off!
[guard] Give him your hand.
[indistinct chatter]
[guard] One, two, three.
[Rowe] Cell extraction is a key weapon
in the guards' ability to maintain control.
[guard] ...two, three.
[guard grunts]
[Rowe] The prison's tunnel system means volatile prisoners can be extracted
without disturbing the illusion of normality for the rest of the inmates.
[Maria] We are going to take off your handcuffs.
[Rowe] Okay.
-[Maria] And you are going to be still. -[Rowe] Yeah.
[handcuffs unclasping]
[Maria speaking Norwegian]
[guards rush out]
[Rowe sighs]
[exhales]
That was rough.
That was fucking rough.
[Rowe] This tiny space is used to contain aggressive and unruly prisoners.
They were in total control.
And there were two things going through my mind:
one, the only thing I could do was breathe,
and, two, not to remember the real life experience that I've had
of being extracted from a cell by prison officers.
I really do understand,
as a mature man and no longer a young volatile prisoner,
why this is necessary.
Um...
But I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
[Rowe] If inmates continue to harm themselves,
they can be totally restrained, as a last resort.
But they've only done this once in the last eight years.
Rather than allowing their emotions to boil over,
prisoners here are encouraged to talk about how they are feeling.
[in Norwegian] But the topic today continues from what we had last time.
Not everyone was here.
[in Norwegian] No, what did we have?
[Linn] We had a lot of stuff.
[Rowe] To address criminal behavior and drug addiction,
inmates attend regular therapy sessions.
[Linn] To begin with,
on Wednesday, we talked about all the different things
that can influence criminal actions and drug abuse.
If it is nature, nurture, our childhood, mental disorders, diagnoses, addiction,
and to look at drug abuse as a dependence syndrome.
[Rowe] Conducting today's meeting is prison guard Linn.
In Norway, officers spend two years
studying conflict management, psychology,
criminology, law, social work, and ethics.
[Rowe] And what do you hope to achieve?
What do they hope to achieve from these sessions?
I want them to speak up and share.
"Who am I? And who can I blame for these problems?"
Some of them do actually say that.
The first time, I can blame it on my father, maybe,
or my environment.
But the ten... Next time, it's myself.
[Rowe] They start to accept responsibility.
I can only blame myself. Yeah.
So, I want them to see the difference between being a victim,
from the system, or their family, or the environment or anything,
and to be an actor in their own life.
[Rowe] After the session, I catch up with persistent offender Christian,
who's about to be released.
[Rowe] You've got three days left. Then you're out, yourself.
How will you cope on the outside?
Before, when I'm being released,
I liked to say that my crowbar and my syringes,
they are just where I left it, so I just pick it up and start again,
but this time is different.
For the first time, I actually feel kind of scared.
And this is a new feeling for me. I usually don't get scared, but...
it's like, "What to do now? What to do now?"
Well, let me say good luck for the future. Good luck.
It was nice meeting you, Christian. Good luck.
[Rowe] This prison is so alien
to anything I have experienced in the past:
the therapy, the close interpersonal relationships with the guards,
the structured routines, the work, and the feeling of normality.
Every aspect of the facility is carefully designed
to change and reeducate even the toughest criminals.
This humane philosophy is championed by the prison's governor, Are Høidal.
What's the purpose of this maximum security prison?
[in Norwegian] The point of prison is that when you commit a crime,
you should be punished for it.
It should feel that you have done something illegal.
But the punishment should be... It should work.
The idea of punishment in Norway is to learn from your punishment,
but also to use the time you have in prison
to help deal with life in a better way
than you did before you ended up in prison.
[Rowe] Hopefully, after two years inside,
it's a lesson Christian has finally learned.
If Halden's radical regime is successful for him,
only time will tell.
[guard in Norwegian] So, what does your dad say, then?
[Christian] I think he's glad I'm coming home.
We've had a different relationship since Mom died.
But I haven't had a chance to speak to him much.
Isn't the whole idea of imprisoning someone
is that they know the pain of where they are,
as a form of retribution for the crime they committed?
Within this prison,
there is supposed to be a miniature society,
where inmates lead normal lives,
as normal as possible, like the life out there.
And that is very important, considering them reentering society.
Well, I guess this is goodbye.
All the best of luck. Don't cry now.
[guard chuckles] No, I'll cry when I get inside.
[Christian chuckles] Thanks for everything.
Yeah, thanks for everything.
[both laugh]
-Good luck. -Bye, Charlotte. Bye.
[in English] I'm a free man. I'm a free man.
And there's my father down there.
[Rowe] Does prison work?
In Norway, we have got good results.
Thirty years back, we had a recidivism rate of 70%.
Now, recidivism in Norway is at around 20 to 30%,
which means that the way we work now creates results.
I have some tools now to help me carry on with my life,
and, hopefully, everything will be okay.
It's up to me now. It's nothing to do with hope, actually.
It up to me now. That's it.
My time in Halden Prison is up, and I can honestly say
it is the cleanest and most humane, visionary prison I've ever seen.
Their focus is 100% on rehabilitating prisoners
to make them into the neighbors you and I would want to live next to.
Halden isn't the world's toughest prison, but it does have the toughest job.
Here, criminals aren't just wrongdoers who need to be locked up and punished,
but broken people who can be fixed.
[dramatic music playing]