Halden Prison - how rehabilitation should work

I write a lot about the prison-industrial complex, particularly as it had developed in the United States. That's also the basis for my forthcoming novel, Laborforce. In the novel, corporations are able to cherry pick inmates based on particular skill sets needed at any given time. When I first began writing, I thought the premise was far-fetched. Sure, I knew that the cherry office furniture that graced the law library at the state agency where I worked more than twenty years ago was produced by Pennsylvania prisoners under the label Big House. But that wasn't for profit - that was a way to produce office furnishings for government offices. And it seemed a step up from chain gangs and pressing license plates in terms of skill development and marketability post-incarceration. What I never imagined was artisans products produced by prisoners for private industries. And yet, that's what is happening today in the United States, as my prior posts show. The premise isn't so far-fetched at all. But there is a better way - a way that encourages rehabilitation and reduces recidivism without also creating a modern day prison plantation. The most advanced, most humane prison in the world may be Halden Prison, outside Oslo, Norway. there prisoners engage in crafts, read, play board games and serve out their sentences in an environment that looks more like a college campus that a prison - certainly it looks nothing like a US prison. Inmates learn skills, train for work they can perform once released and generally are treated like human beings who made a mistake rather than as chattel useful only for making a buck for profiteers. It's quite refreshing and also happens to work.