Prisoners’ Association as an Alternative to Solitary Confinement—Lessons Learned from a Norwegian High-Security Prison

Abstract

Abstract The main rule in Section 17 of the Norwegian Penal Code is that all inmates in Norwegian prisons should, as far as practically possible, be allowed company during work, training, programming, and in their leisure periods. This basically means access to community and social contact with other prisoners all day, from morning to evening. This chapter will look more closely at this main rule as well as the exceptions. In order to better explain how the principle of access to community with other prisoners works in practice, the chapter describes some of the basic principles according to which the Norwegian Correctional Service operates, and it provides some general information about Halden prison. It also examines the rules concerning exclusion from the prisoner community when inmates break the rules. Finally, the chapter discusses how a strong focus on the inmates’ right to community, as particularly applied in Halden prison, helped prison adminstrators to minimize its use of solitary confinement.