6th
The Danish Open-Air Prison
Since Thursday I’ve been on a short study tour to the island region of Fyn in Western Denmark. Yesterday we visited a Danish boarding school and received a lecture on the Danish “flexicurity” model. However, today we had by far the most interesting experience.
That’s Søbysøgård, a Danish prison. No lie, that is the main building of a prison. The other buildings aren’t too shabby either. It’s called an “open-air prison” and I’m pretty sure there’s nothing like it in the United States. Our tour guide got on the bus intercom, informed us that we were entering the prison grounds, and we drove right in. No gate, no security check, no guard, no key, no intercom, nothing. The main supervisor gave our group an enlightening lecture and answered all our questions about the facility and its system.
The inmates here are only confined to their rooms at night. They have to work a normal Danish workweek (37 hours), but receive only 8kr ($1.38) an hour, much less than the Danish minimum wage of 110kr ($19). They can work on the grounds, cultivating organically-grown food, maintaining the buildings and green spaces, study at the school, or work outside in the normal world. These jobs make them get used to living a regular working life and encourage them to be contributing members of society.
While the inmates can literally walk out at any time, they have to check in with a guard every 3 hours. At night they need a guard to escort them to the bathroom, but that sounds like the most severe restriction. The guards carry no weapons of any kind. No gun, no taser, no night stick. All they have are handcuffs. The inmates are required to cook their own food. Every so often, a couple of prison guards will take 8 inmates at a time to a normal grocery store in order to buy food to cook. Once again, the emphasis is on turning people who have committed crimes into functioning members of society. Only one-third of the inmates actually return to prison after they serve their sentences, which are also significantly shorter than in America.
Most of the Danish prisons are open like this one—not closed. They weren’t very clear on what the worst crimes the open-air inmates had committed, but it sounds like if you commit theft or some kind of crime at that level then you can go to the open-air prison. If you’re considered to be a danger to the public then you’re admitted to a closed prison. Is if this system wasn’t astonishing enough, Denmark only has 60 prisoners for every 100,000 people while the United States has more than TEN TIMES that amount at 737 for every 100,000 people.
