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news
Exercise bike - pic credit Michael B Flickr Creative CommonsPrisoners take to exercise bikes to get out of jail faster
Prisoners in a jail in Brazil will have a day shaved from their sentence for every 16 hours they spend pedalling on a stationary bike rigged up to a generator.
The generators power lightbulbs in Santa Rita do Sapucai prison.
According to a report in the Jornal Nacional, the city's judge instated the policy, but prison only has two bikes so far. The paper says that at the moment, a full day can power six lightbulbs, but doesn't say how long for.
Prisoners are so keen to sign up though, that the prison will install another eight bikes.
Judge Jose Henrique Mallmann told the paper that he got the idea from reading about a similar programme in Arizona on the Internet.
At Tent City Jail in Phoenix, female inmates could watch an hour of television from pedalling for an hour, under a system dubbed 'Pedal Vision'.
There are fringe benefits too; one prisoner in Santa Rita do Sapucai prison has reported losing 'about four pounds'.
Latest Comments
- joules1975 10 min 23 sec ago
Glad I wasn't the only one that thought 'eh?'....
- Steve K 1 hour 5 min ago
Dame Laura Kenny is going to be one of the Today programmes guest editors over Christmas. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/today-programme...
- S.E. 1 hour 55 min ago
That made me think of that "Hot Fuzz" comedy movie... so many truths in it.
- Rendel Harris 3 hours 48 min ago
Good to see a V-brake option available for all those people who ride Cosmic Elites with V-brakes...seriously, you must know really that the answer...
- mattw 4 hours 26 min ago
Get thyself over to Buildhub - a community owned forum where I am on the moderation team ("Ferdinand") which is about self-build and renovation....
- Destroyer666 14 hours 29 min ago
Nonono, not those, but those that have constructed Italian cars and motorcycles that have been driven to hundreds of race and championship...
- RoubaixCube 14 hours 38 min ago
This may well be the case although Im unaware of the brands popularity on their home turf. I used to see them being advertised more in the UK...
- qwerty360 15 hours 9 min ago
Arguably sticking it in a bank account is bad....
- Sredlums 16 hours 7 min ago
I'd counter that those brakes were in fact so inadequate that they eventually developed a whole new type of bicycle that was actually suited for it...
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5 comments
What a great story - Jailbreak by bicycle..
Anyway it got me thinking, you wouldn't be too keen going to any spin classes in any gyms in Brazil - imagine the shame of being shown up by some ex-con covered in tattoos.
Also, have Specialized not considered sponsoring a knife amnesty in prisons - hand in a Shiv for a time trial bike.
Then, if a certain Texan multi Tour de France winner were to be sent down by USADA, he'd be back out in no time - his sentence would be as short as the Spanish team mate that he got on so well with a couple of years ago.
The best idea though came from a colleague of mine who said, maybe unbeknownst to them they're powering the generator for the electric chair!
16hours on a turbo? Should get out a week early for that kind of dedication
This is Charlie Brooker's '15 Million Merits' come to life!
Probably energy saving bulbs.
Just what you need, fitter criminals back on the streets sooner