“In the law, being sent to prison is nothing to do with putting you in a terrible prison to make you suffer. The punishment is that you lose your freedom. If we treat people like animals when they are in prison, they are likely to behave like animals. Here, we pay attention to you as human beings.” — Arne Nilsen, Governor of Bastoy Prison, Norway
After reading Erwin James’ beautiful and didactic piece on Bastoy Prison in The Guardian newspaper of the UK on February 25, 2013, I was sunk in reverie. I thought of a scenario where it is possible for a convict to choose where to serve his or her jail term. Imagine a suspect saying: “My Lord, I plead guilty to all the crimes for which I have been charged by the prosecutor. My allocution is however that in sentencing me, temper justice with mercy by sending me to Bastoy Prison in Norway.”