Yeah the Scandinavians do seem to get results from their prisons. I think they do a lot of things right there, in that the prison is not designed to destroy one's life while they are confined there. It's almost like grounding a young kid, you're stuck here and can't really do anything you want, but you still have to go to school just like many in Scandinavian prisons still go to work. It's counterproductive to not send a kid to school as part of a punishment (politics of school aside) and it's the same to not send an imprisoned adult to work. I've spent time in that part of the world and I have a lot of respect for those countries myself. They tend to try things because they think it might make sense despite what everyone else does. A lot of their success is due to very homogeneous societies. Sweden is starting to struggle with things a lot more with their influx of muslims.

But yeah, American prisons? Totally broken. It's just what Heinlein says, you're locking them up with criminals to learn more criminal stuff. Totally counterproductive in that US prison leads to nothing but more crime and more prison in the majority of cases.