Well Lit and educated Brazilians

The Daily Curio

Curio #489 - Turning overcrowded prisons into a solution

An amusing fact for November 4, 2014 from Justin Kitch, Curious CEO

Talk about a creative solution for prison over-crowding. Brazil's federal prisons are so full that officials have created two early release programs allowing inmates to read or pedal their way to freedom. First, prisoners can knock four days off their sentence for each book they read from "literature, science, philosophy, or the classics." Don't worry, they must also provide an essay using paragraphs, proper grammar and legible writing. Inmates who don’t feel like reading can bike their way to the "outside" instead. They get one day of early release for every 16 hours spent pedaling special bikes that power street lights. Now if they just keep arresting people, Brazil is going to have the most literate and well-lit population in the Western hemisphere!

[RibvanRey]

Brilliant. Well it will be if enough sign up.

[James48]

A good post. They get fitter while powering the national grid. Maybe taking it one step further, they could earn credits towards education to help them get into a better place when their sentence is done. We have overcrowding here that needs creative solutions. Thing is, there's no real jobs when they come out - it's a mess!

[Hidden in reply to James48]

it is the same the whole world over the poverty that traps these people is immense and a one way road, until we do something to address that poverty the prison population is not going to drop much at all.

[undine]

Excellent ideas we should do the same - thank you xx

[Louisiana]

What a brilliant idea.