Students travel to learn about Norway’s criminal justice system

Criminal Justice major Oliwer Elfstedt ’20 grew up in Sweden and has been to over forty countries, but he took his first trip with HSU this summer. Elfstedt traveled to Norway with 25 others from the Criminal Justice program to learn about the Norwegian justice system from June 20-30.

During this ten-day excursion, the students compared the prison, police, and court systems found in Texas, the United States, and Norway. They also attended research meetings with the students and faculty of the University of Bergen. The students were immersed in Norwegian culture as they took a train ride across Norway and hiked by waterfalls, fjords, and glaciers. HSU professors chose this destination because Norway’s criminal justice system is vastly different than the United States’.

“The U.S. is very extreme on the punitive side, and Norway is not,” Elfstedt said. “Their recidivism rate is 20%, and ours is 76%. I think it has one of the best prison systems in the world.”

Criminal Justice students in Norway.

During this ten-day excursion, the students compared the prison, police, and court systems found in Texas, the United States, and Norway. They also attended research meetings with the students and faculty of the University of Bergen. The students were immersed in Norwegian culture as they took a train ride across Norway and hiked by waterfalls, fjords, and glaciers. HSU professors chose this destination because Norway’s criminal justice system is vastly different than the United States’.

“The U.S. is very extreme on the punitive side, and Norway is not,” Elfstedt said. “Their recidivism rate is 20%, and ours is 76%. I think it has one of the best prison systems in the world.”

Charlotte Pachall ’19 credits the success of the prison system to the wardens and guards. “They don’t view them as inmates, but as their future neighbors,” she said. “They want to see that they use their time in incarceration productively and learn to be functional members of society. They focus more on rehabilitating people.”

In the Norwegian prison system, offenders are sometimes placed in open prisons where they can leave to work during the day and return to sleep at night. In this way, offenders can contribute to the economy and continue to find their purpose. Elfstedt says that none of this would be possible without the encouragement of the correctional officers.

“Here in the U.S., basically every prison guard says, ‘at the end of the day all I want to do is survive the day and go home.’ The prison guard I talked to said, ‘at the end of the day if I can impact someone’s life, just one person, I’d call it a good day.’ That was a huge difference to me,” he said.

The mental health aspect of the Norwegian justice system interested Charlotte Pachall ’19.

“At the maximum security prison, all the guards are trained in the mental health field,” she said. They are all practicing therapists or psychologists. I thought that was really cool because a lot of times people just want to give inmates medicine, but these correctional officers actually knew how to deal with these situations.”

Alex Richardson ’19 in Norway.

In addition to the educational side of the trip, Elfstedt enjoyed hiking at least ten miles every day. He says that it helped create and strengthen a bond between the students and professors.

Pachall said the mountains left her speechless.

“I was at a loss for words,” she said “I was reminded of the verse that says “Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10).”