That depends entirely on whether you think prison is about "retribution" or about "rehabilitation". This is a very big debate in criminology, but I think rehabilitation is winning out.

Personally, I think that prisons need to be both retribution and rehabilitation at the same time, and base their mode of operation on the Military, but that's my personal opinion. Based on that I'd say the Japanese probably come the closest, with the actual Military being second. I say this not because I don't care about prisoners, but because I know first hand that the way bootcamp operates is a fast efficient way to retrain people who are unwilling to be trained. It also doesn't do this with violence (anymore) so it would be humane without being "soft".

If however you think prisons should be about rehabilitation then, I believe Denmark or Sweden have the best. They also have a highly homogeneous society with only one main race to deal with, so that's why that works for them. In other words, it's easier to retrain people to fit into society if everyone is already from that same society.

Other than that, they just suck everywhere.

Canada has a fairly good prison system that has often been emulated abroad. However, our recently elected Federal government has plans to increase obligatory sentences, prison sizes and reduce costs - which all leads to a very bad mix. Zed, any comments on Canada?

My money's on Scandinavia.

This is one started up last year in Norway:

Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, Halden is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.... / http://www.good.is/post/halden-prison-who-cares-if-it-coddle...

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Is that on airBnB yet? :)

How is that a good thing? They've basically made a prison city, I thought we don't do things like that anymore (i.e. Australia).