Xenophobe's guide to the DANES (reprinted 1998)
という本の
Crime and Punishiment
の項目の所の最後の部分に以下のような記述があります。
Imprisonment in Denmark is not intended to brutalise the prisoner.
The theory is that if you treat him brutally, hi will behave brutally.
So most prisoners are able to have some form of normal life while serving their sentences, keeping in touch whith their families, going home at weekends, even carrying on their busimesses by telephone and correspondence.
It may appear a soft option, but it seems to succeed.