Fighting Crime

Little Scandinavia — An American Prison Experiment

Fighting Crime Episode 2 explores what happened when SCI Chester tried something radically different and what the evidence says about reimagining corrections in America.

Fighting Crime

It’s not true crime. It’s the truth about crime.

There are a bunch of ways to improve public safety that no one is talking about. Until now. Fighting Crime is the podcast that’s dedicated to discovering the evidence behind reducing crime.

—

Join journalist Cristina Quinn as she travels across the country from prisons to universities, police chiefs to inmates, to look at the evidence and question everything we think we know about how to make America safer.

Published

Jun 11, 2026

Focus Area

Criminal Justice

Listen

Sign up for our newsletter

American prisons are not designed to be welcoming places. But what if the American prison experience was reimagined, to the benefit of corrections officers and inmates? In this episode, we head to an experimental prison housing unit in Pennsylvania, which is trying to do just that by incorporating the ethos of a Scandinavian prison.

Guests:

Allison Murphy, Assistant to the SCI Chester Superintendent
Paige Devane, Corrections Officer, Little Scandinavia
Gina Clark, SCI Chester Superintendent Professor
Jordan Hyatt, Director of the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University
Bret Bucklen, Research Director, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

Sources: With thanks to John Stark and Swedish Television for the stills and footage from their documentary “Prison Project: Little Scandinavia” © Swedish Television SVT, 2023

Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures

Who's Who

Host Cristina Quinn

Cristina Quinn is a Boston-based journalist and was the producer and host of The Washington Post's podcast, Try This. Prior to joining the Post, she was a producer at Gimlet Media/Spotify. She previously reported for WGBH Boston. Her stories have also aired on PBS NewsHour, NPR, PRI’s The World and BBC World Service.