Where to Invade Next Page #8

when you speak to them,

they will also feel

that we're trying to help them

back to the same society.

You know, this is gonna be very hard

for Americans to see this.

This looks very strange to understand

why you're doing it,

why you do

your prison system this way.

We have to show more love

and affection for each other,

to take care of each other

in another way.

- This is the way.

- Yeah.

This is a sense of life,

you know?

If we showed a little more

love and affection

and kindness toward each other...

Yeah, yeah.

This is the way.

And this is so important.

- So important.

- Yeah.

The U.S. has one of the highest

recidivism rates in the world.

Nearly 80% of prisoners

are re-arrested within five years.

Norway has

one of the lowest, at 20%.

And that was something

I was claiming for the U.S.A.

Of course, I was visiting

a model prison.

A place for inmates

who were being rewarded

for their good behavior.

I said it wasn't fair to show

the American public their nicest place.

I wanted to see

a maximum security facility.

And that's where I went.

When the prison

first opened in 2010,

the guards wanted to send

a strong message

to the new inmates,

so they made

this orientation video.

There comes a time

When we heed a certain call

When the world

must come together as one

There are people dyin'

And it's time to lend a hand

To live, the greatest gift of all

We can't go on

Pretending day by day

That someone somewhere

will soon make a change...

Is that braille?

For the blind?

Yeah.

For the blind, yes, yes.

It's art.

Modern art.

You have modern art

throughout the prison here?

We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones

who make a brighter day

So let's start givin'

There's a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives

It's true we'll make a better day,

just you and me...

How many fights have you been in?

I have never been in fights,

actually.

You don't need a knife

to protect yourself with?

- Oh, no, no, no.

- No?

- We don't need that.

- No.

Show me your wounds,

the number of times you've been stabbed.

- Oh, no, never.

- Never been stabbed.

I've never been stabbed.

How many times have you

been beaten up here

- by other prisoners?

- No, never.

How many times you've been

raped in the shower?

Never.

That's not gonna happen

because you got

your own shower.

Yeah, here's the bed.

Mm-kay, that's a bed. TV.

- Got the flat-screen TV.

- Mm-hmm.

I'm painting, and besides that,

I'm studying art class, you know.

You're taking philosophy class?

I'm gonna have exam

after summer.

I want to work with community problems

and things like that.

Maybe politics later on.

That's not a bad idea.

Go to prison first,

then become a politician.

And speaking of politicians,

as in Portugal,

prisoners in Norway can vote.

And in order

to get their votes,

candidates show up

for election debates,

televised live

from inside the prison.

I had to keep reminding myself

this was a maximum

security facility.

Here, the inmates have keys, too.

And this inmate was a murderer.

They had Xboxes and a library

as nice as any suburban

high school library in the U.S.

They even had

their own record label

and a recording studio.

Music can actually open

a lot of the creativity inside of them.

And if it's one thing that's said

about the guys here,

they are very creative

in all sorts of ways.

They've got their own laundry,

they've got a pantry,

and, yes, they've got

their own knives, too.

Where are your guns?

- We don't--

- We don't need it.

- You don't need any guns?

- No.

We talk to the guys.

That's our weapon.

- Your weapon is your mouth?

- Yeah.

When it comes to do the job,

they will do it good, you know,

because the officers,

they serve you.

You know,

they're there for you.

- The guards.

- It's not like in America.

They're there for--

beat the sh*t out of you.

Crawl, motherf***er, crawl!

This way. Go!

Get him! Go!

Don't get bit.

You're gonna get bit.

Get down and spread!

Get down and spread!

- Don't move!

- Behave yourselves, behave yourselves.

This is Trond Blattmann,

a plumber by trade.

On July 22nd, 2011,

he lost his 17-year-old son

when he was murdered

with 54 other teenagers

on a summer camp island

in a lake in Norway.

One killer, who espoused

neo-Nazi and racist beliefs,

not only killed

all of these children,

but blew up a federal building

in downtown Oslo.

My son called me

from the island and said,

"Daddy, Daddy,

there's somebody

shooting at us on the island.

What are we gonna do?"

I had never been on the island,

so I didn't know what he meant,

and I said, "Are you together

with other people,

other youngsters? Yes?

Well, then, hide

and stick together,

take care of each other,

and be careful."

He called me around 5:20

and he was dead

just past 6:
00.

Do you wish

that your son had a gun

instead of a cell phone

that day?

What I wished that he had done

was to swim.

Because the ones

who swam survived.

We don't have

death sentences here in Norway,

so we kind of said,

"That mass murderer,

he's going to have the same

kind of treatment as everybody else."

The justice system

is going to judge him

and he's going to have

his sentence.

You cared about

whether he had a fair trial.

- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

- You. You yourself.

But don't you personally

want to kill him?

- No. No.

- If you had the chance?

- If you had the chance?

- No.

- But he killed your son.

- Yeah, but I-- no.

- You don't want to kill him?

- No.

- But he killed your son.

- Yeah, he killed my son.

- You wouldn't want to--

- But I don't want to step--

I don't want to step down

on the ladder and say,

"I had the same right

as you thought you had to kill."

I don't have the same right.

Even though he's just

a piece of scum?

Yeah, but that's-- I know

he's a piece of scum,

but it doesn't give me the right

to shoot him or kill him.

So, after this horrible

act of terrorism,

Norway didn't change its system.

You don't try to institute

a Patriot Act.

No.

You don't try to take away

people's freedoms.

No.

You're cautiously thinking

about arming the police now.

But even that is bothersome

and worrisome.

Why didn't you respond

the way we responded after 9/11?

Well, let me put it this way.

The whole establishment,

from the prime minister

through the king's family

and all of the officials in Norway,

all of the press,

the media said,

"Well, let's now

take care of Norway.

As we have been used

to taking care of each other,

we take care of Norway.

So, we stay together,

we open our hearts,

we open our society.

We're gonna have more democracy,

more freedom of speech,

because to lock up

wouldn't help us.

That would just create

more hatred.

It's true, we'll make a better day,

just you and me

We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones

who make a brighter day

So let's start givin'

There's a choice we're makin'

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