Inmates in one of America's toughest jails are pedalling exercise bikes to generate electricity for their televisions.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio debuted the pilot program called “Pedal Vision” at Tent City Jail in Phoenix, Arizona, where inmates already live in harsh conditions in army surplus tents, sweltering in summer temperatures as high as 122F (50C) and freezing in winter.
Under the programme inmates pedal customized stationary bikes that generate 12 volts of electricity, with one hour of pedalling equaling one hour of television.
Sheriff Arpaio was thought to have been inspired to create the programme when he noticed that many of the inmates were overweight.
"I started with the females because they seemed more receptive to the idea," Arpaio said.
"The only exercise the females get right now is speed-walking around the tents yard and few are doing that. This gives them a reason to get moving and a way to burn up to 500 calories an hour. They won't be charged a monthly gym fee but they will have to sign a contract."
5 comments:
Now but a big guy beating a drum next to them for the speed and hey presto you can make a modern version of some cheap and bad Roman-Slave B-movie...
Oh that Joe Arpaio, what will he think of next. Actually I want this set up in my apartment.
lol, get them outside making big rocks into little rocks, like the good old days :P
We've elected and re-elected Joe for many, many years here in Arizona. You could say he "Plays hardball" with Arizona's inmates and most of them will tell you that is a strong deterrent. Nobody wants to be on one of his chain-gangs. Yes, we have chain-gangs in Arizona picking up the trash. Joe's downside is he is a publicity hound. He likes the news coverage and will almost always choose the alternative that gets him the most press. Nonetheless, I'll vote for him again and again. Inmates don't like him and "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
I like the pedal-powered TV idea. I'm less thrilled about making people live in tents that are 50C in summer; that just strikes me as dangerous and cruel.
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