Convicted mass assassin Anders Behring Breivik spends his days in a spacious three-room cell, taking part in video video games, exercising, watching TV and taking university-level programs in arithmetic and enterprise.
Midway by means of a 21-year sentence and looking for early launch, Breivik, 42, is being handled in a method that may appear stunning to individuals outdoors of Norway, the place he killed eight in an Oslo bombing in 2011, after which stalked and gunned down 69 individuals, largely teenagers, at a summer season camp.
However right here — irrespective of how depraved the crime — convicts profit from a felony justice system that's designed to supply prisoners a number of the comforts and alternatives of life on the surface.
Nonetheless, Breivik's excessive case is testing the boundaries of Norway’s dedication to tolerance and rehabilitation.
"We have never had anyone in Norway who has been responsible for this level of violence before. And there has been debate here about whether part of the justice system should be changed for someone like him," mentioned Erik Kursetgjerde, who survived the slaughter on Utoya island as an 18-year-old. Nevertheless, he advises a sluggish method that doesn't bend to Breivik’s want to subvert the system.
Convicted mass assassin Anders Behring Breivik seems to be on over the past day of his enchantment case in Borgarting Courtroom of Enchantment at Telemark jail in Skien, Norway on Jan. 18, 2017.
(Lise Aaserud/NTB Scanpix by way of AP, File)
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Throughout a three-day parole listening to this week that was broadcast to journalists, Breivik renounced violence, but in addition flashed a Nazi salute and espoused white supremacy, echoing concepts in a manifesto he launched on the time of his killing spree. The outburst was acquainted to Norwegians who had watched him ship rambling diatribes throughout his partially televised felony trial.
"Obviously this has been extremely trying for survivors, the bereaved and Norwegian society as a whole," mentioned Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, professor of regulation on the College of Oslo, including that there's debate in Norway over whether or not parole laws needs to be overhauled in a bid to stop this kind of grandstanding.
In 2016, Breivik efficiently sued the Norwegian authorities for human rights abuses, complaining about his isolation from different prisoners, frequent strip searches and the truth that he was usually handcuffed in the course of the early a part of his incarceration. He additionally complained concerning the high quality of the jail meals, having to eat with plastic utensils and never having the ability to talk with sympathizers.
Whereas Breivik's human rights case was in the end overturned by the next courtroom, the episode confirmed simply how far the Norwegian felony justice system may bend in favor of prisoners' rights and residing situations.
"His conditions according to Norwegian standards are excellent," mentioned his jail psychiatrist, Randi Rosenqvist. She testified on the parole listening to that Breivik continues to be a public menace.
Convicted mass assassin Anders Behring Breivik, left, and protection lawyer Oystein Storrvik take part within the makeshift courtroom in Skien jail on the third day of the trial, the place he's requesting launch on parole, in Skien, Norway, Jan. 20, 2022.
(Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB by way of AP, File)
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Even after Breivik's outbursts at this week's parole listening to, Norwegian authorities present no signal of wavering from treating him like some other inmate at Skien jail.
"In a Nordic prison sentence, the main punishment is deprivation of liberty. All the Nordic countries have systems based on a lenient and humane criminal policy that starts from the mutual understanding that punishment should not be any stricter than necessary," mentioned Professor Johan Boucht from the College of Oslo Division of Public and Worldwide regulation, who has additionally labored in Sweden and Finland. "The second aspect is rehabilitation, and the principle that it is better in the long run to rehabilitate the inmate than create a factory for criminals."
Up till about 50 years in the past, Norway's justice system targeted on punishment. However within the late Nineteen Sixties there was a backlash to the cruel situations of prisons, resulting in felony justice reforms that emphasised kinder remedy and rehabilitation.
Norwegian sentencing and jail situations are sharply at odds with different European nations akin to France, the place the worst criminals can face life imprisonment, with the potential for an enchantment solely after 22 years.
Comparatively few French defendants get the longest sentence, however amongst these dealing with it are Salah Abdeslam, who's the one surviving member of the Islamic State cell that attacked Paris in November 2015. Abdeslam has complained bitterly about his situations within the Fleury-Mérogis jail, the place he's beneath 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement, the furnishings is mounted to the ground of his tiny cell and he can train for only one hour every day.
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Breivik's comparatively lenient remedy inside jail doesn't imply he'll get out anytime quickly, and even in 2032, when his sentence ends.
Whereas the utmost jail sentence in Norway is 21 years, the regulation was amended in 2002 in order that, in uncommon circumstances, sentences may be prolonged indefinitely in five-year increments if somebody continues to be thought-about a hazard to the general public.
Breivik's lawyer, Øystein Storrvik, mentioned in his closing arguments on the parole listening to that Breivik needs to be launched to show that he's reformed and not a menace to society, and that isn't attainable to show whereas he's in whole isolation.
However Breivik's habits throughout this week's parole listening to was proof sufficient to some that he ought to by no means once more see freedom.
Kristine Roeyneland, who leads a bunch for households of Breivik's victims and survivors, mentioned his snug jail situations and skill to unfold extremist views by means of publicized parole hearings are reprehensible.
Regardless of the consequence of Breivik's request for early parole, which shall be determined by a three-judge panel in coming weeks, some take an enlightened view of the Norwegian authorities's obvious dedication to deal with him like some other prisoner.
"People might be afraid that he’s using the law as a stage," mentioned Sandvik, the regulation professor. "But you can also say that, you know, he is being used by the law. He’s a megaphone for the rule of law."
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