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Anders Behring Breivik, Norway Murderer, Wins Human Rights Case
An anonymous reader writes: Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has won part of his lawsuit against the state over his solitary confinement in a high-security prison, the Oslo district court ruled on Wednesday. Breivik, who killed 77 people in a shooting rampage and bombing attack in 2011 (the country's worst acts of violence since the second world war), was served with "inhuman or degrading treatment," the court found, adding that his conditions must be eased. The court said that the prison violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Brevik had noted that "solitary confinement, as well as frequent strip searches and the fact that he was often handcuffed while moving between cells, violated his human rights." The court, in addition, also ordered the government to pay legal costs of roughly $40,600 for the right-wing extremist. The Guardian reports, "Although Breivik is detained in a three-cell complex where he can play video games, watch TV and exercise, judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic of the Oslo district court ruled that the Norwegian state had broken article 3 of the convention. The prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment "represents a fundamental value in a democratic society", she said in a written decision. "This applies no matter what -- also in the treatment of terrorists and killers."
Why do you think such compassionate treatment is harming Europe? Norway has only 1/10th as many people locked up, per capita, as the US. Norway has one of the lowest recivisim rates once people leave prison as well. Crime rates are lower, including the murder rate and other violent crimes.
It's almost as if a default policy of treating prisoners like human beings leads to lower crime rates and less money lost on crime and punishment.
The headline is highly misleading, he only won part of the case.
He won on the argument that article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights was broken, the part about inhumane treatment, referring to repeatedly invasive searches and complete isolation.
He didn't win the rest of the case, the part about the food and other general conditions, the whiny crybaby part.
Eat the rich.
Pretty much.
The French have the right idea in this case. There's no reason to pamper this monster and give him a lifestyle potentially better than law abiding citizens.
Recidivism in France is at 59%. In Norway it's 20%.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Are Norwegians (including their convicts) such pacifists that it couldn't be argued that he needs "protective custody?" Jeffrey Dahmer killed less than 77 people, and he survived, what? Two years with the general prison population?
Western European prisons, and Scandinavian prisons in particular, are very different from the US hellholes. They don't dehumanise inmates to nearly the same degree, and as a result, most prisoners don't behave like crazy monkeys fighting a turf war. The rate of incarceration in Norway nearly ten times lower than in the US, and the level of recidivism is only 20%, as opposed to nearly 80% in the US.
Stephan
You argument is called a slippery slope fallacy. Do you know what a "fallacy" is?