Why is the U.S. reluctant to adopt the Scandinavian prison model?
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A handful of states from California, Pennsylvania to Maine have tried to adopt a more rehabilitative Scandinavian prison model. But such models have failed to be replicated at large scale. Why?
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| 0:51.9 | This is On Point. I'm Deborah Becker, in for Magna Chakra Barty. For the past several years, I've gotten |
| 0:58.6 | regular phone calls from a Massachusetts prisoner. The calls are from Charles DiOrio, who's been incarcerated |
| 1:04.7 | for about a third of his 64 years on the planet. Charles typically calls to talk about prison life and his website, Inmate Author Project, |
| 1:14.4 | where he often writes about the conditions inside the maximum security prison where he's being held. |
| 1:20.4 | It's very violent. |
| 1:22.7 | Lockdowns are routine. |
| 1:24.9 | Inmates are locked in cells for 24, 48 hours. Essential privileges are restricted. |
| 1:31.9 | Rights are ignored. Prisoners live in a perpetual misery. He recently spent about three weeks |
| 1:39.9 | in a special behavioral unit after he was accused, falsely, he says, of threatening staff. |
| 1:46.5 | I was placed in a cell where there was recently a fire. |
| 1:50.4 | I was forced to clean the soot from the fire. |
| 1:54.4 | I was not provided gloves. |
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