The agency was created as the Prison Board (Norwegian: Fængselsstyrelsen later written Fengselsstyret) in 1875 and was subordinate to the Department of Justice and Police, headed by a director. The Prison Board was disbanded in 2002 and replaced by the Norwegian Correctional Service.
Kragerø Prison is (as of 2016) Norway's fourth prison for females and a fifth is expected to start operating as a wing of Kongsvinger Prison in the beginning of 2017.
The Correctional Service is organised into a hierarchy consisting of the Correctional Services Directorate (Kriminalomsorgsdirektoratet) which is responsible for the professional and administrative management, a regional level, consisting of five regional administrations, and a local level with individual prison and probation offices.[2] In addition, the Correctional Service of Norway Staff Academy (KRUS), which has responsibility for agency training of prison officers and The Correctional IT services (KITT), which is responsible for the development, implementation and customization of Information technology systems in the agency.[3]
In order to decrease costs for interpreters and other special needs of foreign inmates, foreign nationals serving sentences involving subsequent deportation were in 2012 incarcerated in an institution holding only foreigners as they are not intended to be re-integrated into Norwegian society.[7] This institution opened in December 2012 in Kongsvinger.[8]
Correctional Services, Western Region includes the counties of Vestland and Møre og Romsdal. The administration is located in Bergen, and the Regional Director is Per Sigurd Våge.
