You may have heard of Sheriff Joe before. In 1993, he opened a prison where all the inmates are forced to live in tents. He's also been in the news for making prisoners wear pink underwear. It's demeaning, and it keeps them from trying to steal it when they get out. And just last December, six inmates filed lawsuits against Sheriff Joe for piping holiday music through the jail loudspeakers 12 hours a day.
Anyway, Sheriff Joe unveiled his latest tactic in the fight on crime at a women's prison last week; it's something he calls "Pedal Vision." Basically, Sheriff Joe decided too many inmates were
overweight. So now if they want to watch TV, they have to pedal a stationary bike to power it. The bike generates 12 volts of electricity, and an hour of pedaling equals an hour of TV viewing. (You'll notice in the picture, Sheriff Joe ALSO makes the inmates wear the old-school STRIPES!!! is there NO END to this man's SHEER AWESOMENESS?!?!)Sheriff Joe says, quote, "We're going to do the best we can in our jail system to help the inmates lose weight, and at the same time, give them the luxury of watching whatever they want to watch on television."
LOVE this guy... unfortunately, if he were in Canada, Jack Layton would be trying to have him fired for some sort of violation of the prisoners' human rights...
Personally I'm all for prison being made as uncomfortable as possible for the inmates. They're supposed to be there for punishment not for an all expences paid vacation. Also, contrary to popular belief, cable tv is not a right. It's a privelage that those of us on the outside have to pay for. I see no reason why inmates, in any country, should be granted free access to it.
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