Read them their rights

     Overcrowding is one of the major problems facing prisons today. One solution put forward by some is to instate early release programs. Prisoners who are well behaved or attend classes can sometimes accumulate days to be taken off of their sentence. Such programs vary from state to state and prison to prison. Recently, Brazil announced a novel addition to their early release program. In an effort to both decrease the current prison population and to cut back on recidivism, prisoners committing further crimes once they are released, Brazil has started a program in its federal prisons to allow prisoners to shave days off of their sentence by reading books.

     You may be wondering why they are instituting such a plan. Simply put, Brazil needs to make room in their prisons, which recent reports show that they are at 166% capacity, and growing. Under the plan those serving time can cut off four days from their sentence, up to a maximum of 48 days per year, for every book they read and proper book report they submit. However, you may be thinking to yourself, "Giving prisoners time off for just reading and writing, what is that supposed to accomplish?"

     The main goal of the program is to give the inmates the chance to gain a different perspective on the outside. “A person can leave prison more enlightened and with an enlarged vision of the world,” said Andre Kehdi, a Brazilian lawyer who leads a book donation program for prisoners. Also, a study in Britain found that long periods of isolation and a lack of mental stimulus can contribute to, "poor mental health and led to intense feelings of anger, frustration, and anxiety.” Not attributes you would like to cultivate in a captive population.

     As the project is a new one, it remains to be seen if it will be effective. However, it does focus on one aspect of serving a jail sentence that is often overlooked, rehabilitation. Yes, almost all people in jail deserve to be there, but hopefully through programs such as this, maybe they can be turned into productive members of society while they pay their debt to it.
   




1. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/brazilian-inmates-offered-reduced-sentences-for-reading-books/article4385621/
2. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/14/world/americas/brazil-alternative-sentence-reduction/index.html
3. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2012/0716/Brazil-s-solution-to-prison-overcrowding-time-off-for-reading-books

"Berry Berry quite contrary"

     Almost everyone loves some kind of berry. Be it blueberries, cranberries, or even grapes, tons of berries are eaten every year. However the term berry can be misleading as some things that are called berries are not, and some that we wouldn't think of as berries, are.

     The official definition of berry is, "a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary". While most "berries" meet this definition, there are some, such as the blackberry, raspberry and the mulberry, that do not. There are five categories of berries that are not berries.

     The first category is the drupes. Drupes are, "fruits produced from a (usually) single-seeded ovary with a hard stony layer (called the endocarp) surrounding the seed". Examples of this category are the olive, the plum, the peach, and the bayberry.

     The next group is the pomes. While the larger pomes, pears and apples, are never called berries, some of the smaller ones, such as juneberries, carry that name.

     The third group of non-berries are the aggregate fruits, which is a fruit that "develops from the merger of several ovaries that were separate in a single flower". Prime examples of these are the blackberry and the raspberry.

     The fourth group are what is called multiple fruits. Multiple fruits, are, "the fruits of multiple flowers that are merged or packed closely together." The mulberry is one big example of this group.

     The final group of "non-berry" berries are the accessory fruits. These fruits are not made from the ovary, but from other parts of the plant. The biggest example of this is the strawberry.

     As for the berries that we wouldn't think of as berries, believe it or not, bananas, pumpkins and watermelons are all considered berries. I guess that goes to show you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover or a fruit by it's name or size.












1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry#Not_a_botanical_berry
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_fruit