From the independent producer project of KCRW and KCRW.

I'm Bob Carlson, and this is UnFictional.

Unfictional is a program of stories and personal documentaries, and today on the program,

what can you do with a man who's been publicly declared to be a national menace?

Earlier this year, radio producer Steve Erkett went to learn how different countries deal with

convicted felons.

And one of the places he went was Norway, a country that's frequently described as liberal

and progressive when it comes to

prison and rehabilitation and shockingly comfortable and cushy to American eyes.

Halden prison, for example, in the

world of Norway has a reputation for being the world's most humane jail.

Steve met the director of Holden Prison,

Ara Heidel, who told him about one particular former inmate.

His name is Trun Henrichsen.

He was a very dangerous person in the 70s, 80 80s he was known as most dangerous guy in Norway

really really it was in the paper, the whole front side, the most dangerous guy in Norway.

When you talk about prisons in Norway, it becomes a discussion of what a prison is even for. Is it about punishing

the guilty harshly for their crimes or giving a sense of justice to victims? Or

mainly a deterrent, a hellhole, where most of your privileges and comforts are gone.

Or should prison be about taking a man who's broken, following a path of drugs, crime, and violence,

and then trying to fix him,

give him the tools to make a new life.

...