Scandinavian Prison Or American Office?

Humane prisons in Norway look better than the average American workplace.

1. 1. Which of these is a Scandinavian prison?

   1. 
   2. 

   Top: Facebook headquarters circa 2007.
   (Photo via officesnapshots.com)
   
   Bottom: Norway’s Halden Prison, which has a capacity of 252 prisoners and cost $252 million to build. None of the windows on site are barred.
   (Photo via Trond Isaksen / Statsbygg)

2. 2. Which of these is a Scandinavian prison?

   1. 
   2. 

   Top: Halden prisoners enjoy a well-stocked library with DVDs, books, magazines and CDs. The premises of the prison are also covered in $1 million worth of commissioned artwork.
   (Photo via Alex Masi / foreignpolicy.com)
   
   Bottom: San Francisco office of social games behemoth Zynga.
   (Photo via Jason Madara / officesnapshots.com)

3. 3. Which of these is a prison yard?

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   2. 

   Top: Abercrombie & Fitch campus in Ohio. Bro Couture HQ. Riding the bro waves forever.
   (Photo via Stephan Searer / officesnapshots.com)
   
   Bottom: Tall trees flank the jogging trail on Halden’s 75-acre site. Architects preserved the trees to obscure the walls around the prison to reduce its institutional feel.
   (Photo via Trond Isaksen / Statsbygg)

4. 4. Which of these is a Norwegian prison?

   1. 
   2. 

   Top: Santa Monica office of Activision, the video game studio behind Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk Skater Pro.
   (Photo via Mark Scott)
   
   Bottom: Varg Vikernes enjoys a corner window office in his Tromso prison. You may remember Varg as the black metal musician who fatally stabbed a fellow band’s frontman, burnt Norway’s oldest church, and plotted to blow up a leftist anarchist enclave with 150kg of explosives. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, Norway’s maximum, and was released on parole after 16.
   (Screenshot via “Til the Lights Take Us”)
   
   

5. 5. Which of these is a Swedish prison?

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   2. 

   Top: When you call Time Warner Cable about your awful internet connection, know that the sadsack on the other end is sitting here.
   (Photo via net-floor.biz)
   
   Bottom: a room in Kolmarden Prison, where non-violent offender lock their own cells at night and are free to leave the site during the day. Sweden’s penal system is so famously humane that Saddam Hussein’s lawyer requested a transfer to Sweden, which was denied.
   (Photo via ipak.org)

6. 6. Which of these is a prison kitchen?

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   2. 

   Top: One of many communal kitchens in Halden Prison, where crimepunks and crimesters presumably giggle, repent and bake cookies together.
   (Photo via Alex Masi / foreignpolicy.com)
   
   Bottom: WebMD’s Portland office.
   (Photo via Stephan Searer / officesnapshots.com)

7. 7. Which of these amenities do Norwegian prisoners enjoy?

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   2. 

   Top: Adobe employees have a zest for clacking Guitar Hero controllers joylessly together, shrieking the lyrics to Free Bird.
   (Photo via Stephen Searer / officesnapshots.com)
   
   Bottom: Wooden cottage at Bastoy Island Prison, where 120 prisoners swim, fish, bike, and stew in saunas all day. The prison began as a hugely controversial experiment, but at 16% recidivism, Bastoy prisoners have the lowest reoffending rate in all Europe.
   
   Norway’s national recidivism rate is 20%, compared to 67.5% in the US.
   (Photo via Marco Di Lauro / Getty)

8. 8. Which of these is a prison music studio?

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   2. 

   Top: Halden Prison also boasts an on-site recording room with professional audio equipment and band rehearsal space.
   (Photo via Trond Isaksen / Statsbygg)
   
   Bottom: SONAR X1 station at EMI Music’s New York office. (Photo via Jimmy Landry / Cakewalk)
   
   

9. 9. Which of these is a Swedish prison?

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   2. 

   Top: Nap room for the employees of National Center for Atmospheric Research on 20-hour shifts.
   (Photo via Nicole Bort / Business Insider)
   
   Bottom: A bed at a prison in Sweden where the founders of the Pirate Bay torrent site are held. (Photo via Gizmodo)
   
   

10. 10. Which of these is a Danish prison?

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    2. 

    Top: C. F. Moller Architects won a competition to design a Danish state prison, vowing to “give a less restrictive appearance by providing a sense of dialogue with the outside world.”
    (Photo via C. F. Moller Architects)
    
    Bottom: LinkedIn’s office in Mountainview, CA.
    (Photo via Jerry Luk)

11. 11. Which of these is a Swedish prison?

    1. 
    2. 

    Top: Yahoo’s New York office circa 2007.
    (Photo via Skreuzer / officesnapshots.com)
    
    Bottom: This high-security prison in Sollentuna, Sweden, features designer furniture, natural lighting, communal kitchens, and 17 guest rooms for visitors. Released Swedish prisoners have a 41% reoffending rate.
    (Photo via Bjorn Lindahl / Aftonbladet)
    
    

12. 12. Which of these cells holds a Norwegian mass-murderer?

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    2. 

    Top: Ila Prison, where Anders Behring Breivik’s 21 year sentence may be indefinitely extended after he murdered 77 in 2011’s Norway Attacks.
    (Photo via Reuters)
    
    Bottom: A for-profit juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania. Yes, some Americans own private prisons as their 9-to-5. To help its profit margins, Mid-Atlantic Youth Services bribed two Pennsylvanian judges $2.6 million to sentence more children to his facilities. Some children have ended up here for insulting their principals on Myspace, or shoplifting DVDs at the local mall. Read more on the 2008 Kids for Cash Scandal here.
    (Photo via PA Child Care)
    
    Next quiz: American Prison or Dante’s Inferno?

Scandinavian Prison Or American Office?

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