Edit: Lovely. VGChartz decided to delete all the quotes of you. I'll just add in what you said in italics.
Punishing prisoners is a form of deterent. I actually know some criminals who got out of jail and didn't want to go back. Of course one of them was arrested a few weeks ago and is back in. But most non-homeless people do not want to go to jail. As such many would be criminals don't commit crimes to avoid going to jail.
Their has to be some sort of consequence to commiting crimes. If you do not punish anyone and the result of the crimes is a stay at an Island resort. Where is the lesson to be learned? Don't commit a crime or you'll have to go on vacation?
Since the earliest days of mankind their has been prison systems. It has always worked fairly well or it wouldn't still be in use. Norway is essentially ignoring thousands of years of proven methodalogy.
Removal of freedom is a punishment in itself. Having no contact with the outside world for several years is quite bad.
There is a lesson learned. The lesson just isn't "Prison is bad. I don't like prison, so I won't break the law", it's "Doing what I did is bad, it hurts other people. I won't do that again". It's treating the cause of the problem, not ignoring the cause and controlling the person through fear.
They're not allowed internet access in Norway either. They're also either confined on islands or within walled areas. They're not allowed to freely walk around in society by any means. Confined doesn't have to mean put in a boring cell.
It seems you've completely misunderstood Norwegian prisons. They're still prisons, he doesn't live with innocent people. He lives with other prisoners, the guards and his tutors. And for the people who are a danger to the other prisoners, those are put in cells. Just cells with (a minimum of) 10 square meters, and a TV.
We give everybody who is unable to work a form of social security. They get more money than you need to live well above the quality of the people in our prisons. Of course, there are some (very few) homeless people, but that's because they've messed up their own lives completely, and don't accept help.
And your life isn't inferior to most Norwegian prisons. You have freedom. You're hugely underestimating that aspect.
They don't. The prisoners don't have a better lifestyle than the people outside. The video you saw is for the best prison, they're not all that good (although they're all close to as good).
You live under the impression that people in prison should have a horrible life. I don't think they do, nor does the Norwegian system. Sure, they may have done something horrible to someone, but you have to consider why they did it. Fixing the reason why they did it will help the person make himself a "proper" person again.
Now, our welfare state system could also be criticised. If you live in Norway, and try to work but end up with an injury, you're entitled to more money a year than many working people in, say, Poland, earn a year. There are some people who abuse that system, but the majority don't.
The Norwegian system is based on assuming people are fundamentally nice, and that they have a moral sense. You may call it naive, but it's definitely working. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates, if not the lowest, in the world.
Make a system where you expect the people to be nice, moral, proper people, and the vast majority will be nice, moral, proper people. Make a system where you expect everyone to exploit everything for their own benefit, and... well. That works for both citizens and prisoners in a country.
