Imagine that spending your trial period for any crime you committed simulates being on a recreational vacation, where everything you want, whatever food you want is prepared, and whatever things you desire comes to you, as if you were living among the corridors of palaces!

While the idea of punishment and deprivation prevails in prisons around the world, the Norwegian prison violates these customs and adopts different behaviors towards its prisoners “for an end in Jacob’s soul.” What is it?

About 75 kilometers off the coast of Oslo in Norway, there is an island that is home to 115 criminals, including the most dangerous criminals in the country, most of whom are convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, and drug trafficking.

There are no walls, high fences topped with barbed wire, or electric fencing surrounding the island, nor are there any hounds, heavily armed guards patrolling the perimeter of the island, or even the sound of sirens.

Prisoners on this island prison live in brightly colored wooden houses, and spend most of their time engaging in agricultural and peasant activities, taking care of animals, and chopping firewood.

The kind of “gentle” treatment that these prisoners receive in Bastoy Prison raises the dissatisfaction of many, and many even consider it an insult, and that prisons should be a place of deprivation of the lowest pleasures of life, and punishment centers and not places for rest and recreation, but if the goal is... While prisons are all about changing criminals for the better, Bastoy Prison seems to do this job well.

According to Norwegian media statements, only 16 percent of prisoners released from “Bastoy” return to crime within two years of their release, compared to other prisons in Norway, where this percentage is estimated at twenty percent, and in all European prisons at seventy percent.

According to the former governor of Bastoy, Kvernik Nielsen, it's all about refinement, discipline, respect, and self-discovery. The only way to change people for the better is by putting them in situations where change occurs at the self-level, and that must start with the individual's self-discovery. In completely new ways, instead of looking at himself and considering it a miserable failure.

Bastoy Prison allows prisoners to make their own decisions regarding how they will serve their sentences, choosing the profession they wish to practice.

This type of prison makes criminals realize that they are not that bad, which prompts them to resolve to change their lifestyle for the better, knowing that this is something that you cannot punish people until they discover it.