As you might of picked up by now, things are a bit different in Iceland.

This is true of their prisons too.  Here is the prison in Reykjavik.

It has room for 12 prisoners.  That’s right 12.  Let that sink in for a minute.

On the back side of the prison wall is a bar, where the prisoners can hear all the laughing and jovial activities going on inside.  The point being that the prisoners could be out enjoying themselves if they weren’t inside the prison.  Iceland takes a different look at prison – seeing it as an opportunity to reform a prisoner so they can be a productive member of society again.

This stems from the larger view of society.  There is a different culture.  There’s a different way of thinking about people.  There’s a different view about trust between people and institutions.  Then again, when you have less than half a million people in the entire country, maybe you can see things differently.