Norwegian Prison Goes Eco-Friendly

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," prison director Oeyvind Alnaes said.

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. 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.

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.

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?"