Article 25: Punishment That Still Works? Norway’s Challenging and Changing Correctional Landscape

Whilst often seen as a penal role model, Norway’s correctional landscape is undergoing significant changes and faces some major challenges. This article gives an overview of these challenges and changes, using a newly-published policy document entitled Punishment that works—implementing sentences for a safer Norway to illustrate some key aspects of contemporary correctional practice around resourcing, sentence content, staffing levels and expertise, geographical coverage, mental health, and gender. The article concludes with two specific lessons regarding use of electronic monitoring and correctional salaries, as well as an overarching observation that practical issues like competitive salary and appropriate staffing are closely bound up in the cultural aspects of empathic and understanding leadership, respect for others, and knowledge-based practice.