Exercise cages at the US Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence, in Florence, Colorado. Amnesty International Inside the walls of the toughest prison in the US, a fork is a deadly weapon. Inside the walls of Norway's toughest prison, a fork is, well ... a fork.

The differences extend far past silverware. In just about every way, the approaches that the US and Norway take to criminal justice fall on opposite ends of the spectrum.

While the US uses isolation to punish offenders and keep them away from civil society, Norway prefers to rehabilitate its inmates so they can return to the outside world — there are no life sentences.

No two prisons make that difference more clear than the super-max Administrative Security Facility, or ADX Florence, in Florence, Colorado and Halden Prison, in Halden, Norway.

Not all US prisons are as strict as ADX, and while Halden is technically maximum-security, it's still closer to the rule than the exception in Norway. Here's what life is like at both extremes.