ArchitectureQuiz: Is this a prison or a museum?
Take this quick quiz to see if you can tell the jails in Norway and Denmark apart from contemporary cultural institutions just by looking at their exteriors.

There's a lot you can infer about a society from its treatment of prisoners and the quality of life in its prisons and jails. When it comes to humane accommodations for their incarcerated populations, Scandinavian countries lead the way where current standards for penitentaries take into account medical and educational services, a level of comfort and reeducational programs sans repressive methods. (Norway and Denmark have a recidivism rate of 20% and 27%, respectively. In the U.S., it's 52%.) Some prisons have opted for trendy, museum-like architecture for their exteriors. Likewise, some cultural institutions around the world have adapted a heavy, industrial feel. Take this quiz to find out if you can distinguish certain jails from contemporary art museums and cultural centers by clicking "Jail" or "Art".

Dima Nazarov
Is this a prison or an art museum?
Answers: (1) Arquipélago Contemporary Arts Centre, Portugal (2) a maximum-security prison in Halden, Norway, (3) civic and cultural centre inside a former prison in Palencia, Spain, (4) Nuevo Centro Cultural de Pozuelo (NCC), Spain (5) Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, (6) Justizzentrum Leoben Minimum Security Prison in Austria, (7) Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, (8) Toronto South Detention Centre, (9) Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago, (10) East Jutland State Prison in Denmark
COVER PHOTO via Statsbygg