Halden Prison

See this deceptively titled photo-essay at Maggie's Farm, "The Beautiful Halden Luxury Retirement Centre."

Also at NYDN, "Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik's potential prison digs equipped with fancy luxuries." And here's this from London's Daily Mail in 2010, "World's poshest prison? Cells with en-suite bathrooms and no window bars (plus £1m Banksy-style art)":

Halden opened it's doors officially last month, taking in the first batch of inmates. Prison governor Are Hoidal said there have been no escape attempts.

He said: 'In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect.

'We don't see any of this as unusual.

'When they arrive many of them are in bad shape and we want to build them up, give them confidence through education and work and have them leave as better people.'

Halden also features jogging trails in nearby woods and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits.

In Norway only 20 per cent of prisoners end up back in jail after release, compared to between 50 and 60 per cent in the UK.

Sounds so great, although Norwegian society still managed to produce Anders Breivik.

RELATED: At Daily Caller, "Police: Alleged Norwegian mass murderer faces just 21 years in Prison." But see The Economist, "Flowers for freedom: As Norwegians mourn their dead, they insist that they will not give up the openness of their society."

Mr Breivik is in police custody, in solitary confinement without access to news or the internet for the next eight weeks. Though he has confessed to the killings, he denies he committed a crime. He will probably be charged under a recent terrorism provision in the criminal code that allows a 30-year prison sentence. There are other provisions that could keep him locked up for the rest of his life. The Norwegian police have yet to answer conclusively the vital question of whether he acted alone or with accomplices.

A facet of Norwegian openness—its tolerance of diversity—was one of the things that fuelled Mr Breivik’s mass slaughter. The Labour Party, the dominant force in Norwegian politics for decades, came into his cross-hairs because of its staunch defence of both diversity and tolerance. AUF, the party youth wing that organised the camp on Utoya island, was a doubly attractive target in his twisted ideology: it is fervently anti-racist and many members come from Norway’s ethnic minorities.