By Lars Magne Braarød Østby, Østfold County Municipality

Introduction

Education in Norwegian prisons follows the so-called import model, whereby services such as education, health care, the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), chaplaincy, and library services are delivered by external providers. The model is based on the principle of normality and is intended to ensure equal access to welfare services for inmates and to support rehabilitation and reintegration into society, regardless of gender.

Organisation and Funding

All Norwegian prisons offer education. The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training has the overall national responsibility, while the County Governor of Vestland is coordinating the educational activities. The county authorities are professionally and administratively responsible for education within their respective counties. Local upper secondary schools are responsible for practical implementation and provide teaching in classrooms and workshops inside the prisons.

Education is financed through state grants, while the correctional services and the individual prison are responsible for providing premises for teaching and for practical arrangements for the school.

The correctional services at each prison must facilitate suitable premises and practical conditions for the school unit. Opportunities for education and vocational training depend on the design of the individual prison and its work operations.

Right to Education

The new Education Act from 2024 grants young people and adults extended rights to complete upper secondary education. There are six general academic (study-preparatory) programmes and ten vocational programmes, covering more than 200 trade certificates. For adults, lower secondary education is now modular, and some vocational subjects in upper secondary education follow the same model. Education must be linked to competence aims from the Knowledge Promotion Reform 2020 curriculum and include training in basic skills. Teaching shall be adapted to each individual’s needs and life situation.

Female Inmates – a Vulnerable Group

Women make up only 5–6% of the prison population, around 150–200 individuals.

Research shows that women more often than men have been exposed to sexual abuse and have more mental and physical health challenges. To prevent violence and harassment, women serve their sentences in separate prisons or units. Many women have short sentences, making it difficult to complete education.

Prisons – the Current Situation

As of January 2026, Norway has three dedicated women’s prisons and two women’s units within men’s prisons.

Women on remand and those sentenced to preventive detention serve together with other convicted prisoners.

Overall, women’s prison places have for several years been characterised by frequent transfers of inmates, and by prisons and units being closed and established on a temporary basis.
The limited number of prisons and their geographical location make it difficult for many women to serve their sentences close to their home communities, families, and children.

Education in Prisons – the Reality for Women

Formally, women have the same rights to education as men, but the range of educational provision varies greatly between prisons. Overall, education in Norwegian women’s prisons is far from equivalent to what male inmates are offered.

There are few women’s prisons, often with small units. This makes it difficult to offer a broad and equivalent educational programme, particularly vocational education that requires workshops and practical training placements. When provision also differs between prisons, this creates challenges for completing education if inmates are transferred from high-security to lower-security facilities.

We are currently seeing that several inmates choose to remain in high-security prisons longer than necessary, partly due to poorer living conditions elsewhere, but also because they cannot continue the education they have started.

Digital Education – a Step Forward

Today, inmates can use a PC via the DFS system (Desktop for School), with very limited internet access that is logged and monitored. A new system, Utvei, is under development and is intended to provide better digital learning opportunities. Nevertheless, current provision is far from what exists in some Nordic countries with “smart prison” solutions and distance learning.

What Is Needed to Improve Education for Women Serving Sentences in Norway?

There is still considerable uncertainty regarding the future organisation of women’s prisons in Norway. The Norwegian Correctional Service (KDI) appointed a working group that delivered recommendations in June 2023 on content and organisation: “Execution of Sentences for Women Towards 2030.” These recommendations must be followed up with concrete measures, deadlines, and allocation of resources.

The small number of women’s prisons and often small units make it difficult to offer a broad and equivalent range of subjects compared with men. National guidelines and minimum requirements for education provision must be established, particularly for vocational education that requires workshops. Instead of dispersing small-scale provision, resources should be consolidated into regional centres that can deliver better programmes.

Completing education that has been started is crucial for successful reintegration into society. Today, differing provision between women’s prisons can make completion difficult. Greater focus on temporary release schemes and/or temporary leave should be considered, enabling women to participate in and complete subjects and modules outside the prison walls, including the follow-up centres that have been established in almost all counties.

There are still prisons with four-person and double cells, which runs counter to the correctional services’ main rule of single cells to ensure privacy and safety. Four-person cells must be eliminated and single cells ensured to provide peace and quiet for independent study and learning.

Current digital solutions are inadequate, with limited internet access and restricted opportunities for distance learning and collaboration with external actors. Better digital solutions and distance learning should be developed in all women’s prisons, including faster rollout of the Utvei platform with secure digital teaching.

There is considerable variation between prisons in the focus placed by correctional services and prison management on education and its importance. Equality objectives should be incorporated into the correctional services’ action plans, as in the Strategy for Gender Equality 2025–2030.

There are differing views across prisons on the importance of structured cooperation between prison work operations and schools, and on the opportunities, this may create for women after release. This cooperation must be strengthened in all prisons, so that women can access the best possible education and practical training opportunities, with less emphasis on production and financial returns from prison labour.

Cooperation across prisons should also be considered to improve resource utilisation.
In addition, county authorities hosting women’s prisons should prioritise this work in their education and strategy plans. Cooperation between county authorities and NAV should be strengthened, and the establishment of regional cooperation and competence centres for schools responsible for education in women’s prisons should be considered.

Conclusion

In 2021–2022, the Norwegian Directorate of Correctional Services initiated a working group that developed the strategy plan “Execution of Sentences for Women Towards 2030.” As an immediate measure in 2023, Skien Prison was rapidly converted into a women’s prison to improve critically poor conditions in another facility. Beyond this, there is little evidence that the strategy plan has led to significant changes in organisation. Overall, female inmates still have markedly poorer provision than men.

To ensure equal educational opportunities for women in Norwegian prisons, decisions must be made about the future organisation of women’s prisons, supported by targeted measures and clear deadlines. Education is one of the most important tools for breaking with previous life patterns and reducing reoffending—therefore, women must be given better educational opportunities in all women’s prisons.

Our Own Podcast

Our Nordic working group, via NLL, has during the period 2024–2026 focused on education for women in prison. We have sought to identify educational opportunities for female prisoners in the Nordic countries from a gender-equality perspective. We have examined women’s versus men’s opportunities for rightful education during imprisonment, as well as after release. Over 2.5 years, this has led us to work under the guiding theme:

This is how it is – this is how it should have been!

As part of our mandate, we have developed a new podcast series. Up to six podcasts from the Nordic countries will be released, all addressing the same themes. The focus is on giving incarcerated women themselves a voice—talking about their experiences of school and education and the significance this has during imprisonment. An article series has also been written, with one article from each Nordic country. The articles describe similarities and differences in education and training in Nordic prisons.

The podcast series and articles will be available by March 2026 at:
Nordic Network for Lifelong Learning – NLL