This man is serving a life sentence for murder.
A dip in the frozen lake behind the prison
is part of his regular workout routine.
Welcome to life
in one of Finland's open prisons.
There are no cell blocks here, just dormitories.
Inmates come and go in their own cars.
When Matti isn't at the nearby university campus,
he's in his dorm room,
studying for a career in tech.
In recent years,
Finland has been named the happiest
and safest country in the world.
Citizens here enjoy generous public benefits,
universal healthcare, subsidized daycare for children,
and free college tuition.
Promotional films like this,
produced by Finland's Criminal Sanctions Agency,
document how prisoners are eased back into society
with work opportunities and help from counselors.
And the incarceration rate here
is one of the lowest in Europe,
a quarter of what it was in 1950.
In Finland,
only one in three former convicts ends up back in prison.
Compare that to the United States,
where two out of three get locked up again
within two years of release.
A 2018 bill included sentencing reforms
meant to reduce what is referred to as recidivism,
but they only apply to inmates in federal custody,
just 10% of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in the US.
Critics say the 2018 reforms are only a small first step
and fall far short of the kind of meaningful change
Finland is so proud of.
The scale, of course, is different.
Today, there are fewer than 3,000
in the Finnish prison system.
The number of people behind bars in the US
is equal to half of Finland's total population.
A reimagining of what prison looks like here
started nearly 70 years ago,
when this Scandinavian nation
began building one of the most humane systems in the world.
In some of the latest steps,
Finland's Criminal Sanctions Agency
is investing heavily in technology training.
And building a state-of-the-art
smart prison for women,
and even testing VR to provide an escape from the drab walls
and fluorescent lighting of Turku,
Finland's highest-security closed prison.
Mika, who is 10 years into a 15-year sentence,
is walking through a 3D forest.
He appreciates the chance to interact with VR technology
and learn the basics of working with computers.
Now, Finland is investing in the infrastructure
to support that readjustment,
a 34 million euro prison
that many hope will set the standard for the future.
No bars, glass windows,
and internet connection in every room,
and small touches meant for comfort.
When it opens in this fall,
the brand new facility in Hämeenlinna
is expected to be Europe's most high-tech women's prison.
But just across the road,
a reminder of the past.
The old facility built in 1972
once housed both men and women.
It shut down in 2019 after years of disrepair,
mold, and other reasons.
And just a few minutes drive away,
a relic built in the 19th century
and modeled on the American style of prison
that is still widely in use today:
cell blocks arranged in a radial floor plan,
prisoners living in solitary confinement.
This one is a museum now,
preserved to show just how hard prison life here used to be.
For Matti, the road to reform has led him to a career
that he would never have dreamed of before.
He connected with Reaktor,
a digital agency that designs online education courses.
When they heard he was participating in this story,
they invited him to give some feedback on the program.
Seeing him in this meeting,
it's easy to forget
that Matti is still serving out his sentence for murder.
In that time,
he hopes to complete a university degree
and start a business.
Based on Matti's recommendations,
Reaktor is planning to add an entrepreneurship course
to the prison curriculum.
After the meeting,
Matti heads back to Laukaa Prison.
But he is excited for the future.