Viral Photos of Sweden's Lavish Prison Cells are Reminding Netizens of Hotel Rooms

What do you picture when you hear the word ‘prison’? Usually, it’s a dingy room with cold concrete floor and darkness all around. Well, get ready to have your stereotype shaken out as a Twitter thread shows what prisons in Sweden looks like.

A Twitter thread is going viral and blowing minds of netizens as it shares pictures of what prison cells look like in the Nordic country. User @IDoTheThinking shared several images of the high-security prison that went viral on social media.

Captioning the image, Twitter user Darrell Owens said, “Nordic prison cells look like $3,000 apartments in San Francisco.” The pictures shared on the microblogging site showed the well-lit clean prison cells of Sweden. One of the pictures also showed a common area for the prisoners which had a bookshelf, a television, and clean wooden furniture, looking like a community library.

In the following tweet, Owens compared the state of prisons and recreational homes in the United States with that of Sweden. He said the first two photos are of prison cells, while the latter two are common areas for 12 prisoners.

He further said that he called the Nordic prison cells like an apartment in San Francisco with $3000 rent per month because of its modern housing, not inhumane dungeons like American prisons. Owens explained that the rent in San Francisco is high not because the apartments are good but because there's a housing shortage.

Taking a dig at prisons in the US, Owens said he wonders if the goal of imprisonment is to rehabilitate people and steer them away from criminal lifestyles, which environment would foster a better outcome. He said that factors like overcrowding to period of sentence decide if a proper rehabilitation helped not just in reducing crime but also in improving the lives of prisoners.

Owen said how a strong system of public healthcare, employment, education and rehabilitation, helps. Since being shared online, the post has received overwhelming response on the microblogging website, with many debating over the contents of the post. While many supported Owen’s arguments, others were impressed with the facilities provided to the prisoners and wanted to get arrested.

1) The first 2 photos are cells. The latter 2 are common areas for ~12 prisoners2) By $3,000 dollar apartments, I just mean modern housing, not inhumane dungeons like American prisons. SF's rent isnt high because the apartments are good but because there's a housing shortage.

— Darrell ❄ Owens (@IDoTheThinking) December 12, 2020

The tweet has received over 170.7k likes as netizens express how impressed they are with the Nordic prison system. Many even expressed how they would like to serve a term in one of those lavish prisons in Sweden.

As one user commented, “This must be the pandemic talking but I’d love to have a vacation in one of these cells right now.”