May 10, 2017 – This fall, Alaska officials will travel to Norway to learn how the country’s corrections system has been successful in keeping offenders from committing new crimes.

The trip is sponsored by the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm focused on improving prison conditions in the United States.

 May 11, 2017 – During a Tuesday (May 9) press conference outside Fairbanks Correctional Center, Prison Law office Executive Director Donald Specter described Norway’s approach.

”In Norway, people who are incarcerated are seen as members of the community, so they’re not forgotten about when they come into a facility,” Specter said. “They’re immediate goal is to try to get them out in a productive way. Norwegian prison systems have a saying, that they want to produce a better neighbor.”

New evidence shows that a few weeks before a teenager held in solitary confinement at Perryville Prison died in what appears to be an act of suicide, the Arizona Department of Corrections had been specifically warned about her deteriorating mental health and notified that the conditions in which she was being kept likely violated state policy.

“If people are spending all of their time in a cage by themselves, it’s not unusual that they’re going to behave in a way that’s not really desirable,” says Karianne Wolfer, Director of Correctional Practices.