14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, an inmate escaped an island prison in Norway not by boat or even by raft, but on an old surfboard. Weirder still, word has it he used a toy shovel to paddle to shore.
The 23-year-old inmate, whose identity has not yet been disclosed, sailed away from the island prison of Bastøy under the cover of darkness.
It was only the day after the escape that prison guards noticed that the window to his cell was open and realized that he had left the island during nighttime, without anyone noticing.
Even though Norway's Bastøy Prison sits at a distance of about 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) from shore and, as noted, his escape ride was a surfboard, it looks like the inmate had no trouble reaching land.
Both the surfboard and the toy shovel he used to paddle to freedom were discovered by law enforcement officers on a nearby beach shortly after the escape.
It is understood that the police are now out looking for the prisoner. If found, the man, serving a sentence for narcotics and rape, will be sent back to jail.
Norway's Bastøy Prison is a lawbreaker's heaven
Unlike other facilities of the kind, Norway's Bastøy Prison is oddly low-security. There are no fences, and cell doors and windows are never locked.
Inmates can watch movies, walk on the beach, even grow their own organic crops and cook them. Since the prison is located on an island, escapes are not a common occurrence. Nonetheless, as proven by the 23-year-old inmate now on the run, they can happen.
The prison was designed to be this lax both to promote humane incarceration policies and to prepare inmates for life after their release. Thus, whatever farming or cooking skills acquired while serving time here should help them fit in when they are finally set free.
Interestingly, Time tells us that, according to a recent study, the system actually works. In 2012, Norway's Bastøy Prison had a recidivism rate of merely 16% for a period of 2 years after release, much lower than that documented for stricter facilities of the kind.
