ABC Wednesday: Prison

It's ABC WEDNESDAY, and p is for prison.

Islands are perfect places on which to build prisons. Even if a prisoner escapes, they can't go far. Just 4km away from my house (I pass this place every day on my drive to the children's schools), we have a minimum security agricultural prison, catering for prisoners convicted for minor offences. Each day they spend in there (without causing trouble) counts for two sentence days. They live inside the compound, but every day they can be seen clearing the fields, tending sheep, raising vegetables, growing flowers, and doing all manner of outdoor work.

I don't know if this is true, but a friend of mine told me recently that some of the prisoners held there also commit minor offences while they are actually serving their sentence in this minimum security agricultural complex because they don't want to leave at the end of their time; the prison provides them with work, food and accomodation, something they won't find easily once they leave the compound.

I didn't take a photo of the front entrance of the prison, because I would have looked too conspicuous, but I can tell you it looks really pretty. The main office looks like a country cottage, and in front of it, there are flower beds full of roses. A new maximum security prison is also being built 4km away from this site. That place looks quite ugly, if you ask me (watchtowers, high walls, barbed wire).