Plus, You Gotta Tip Like 16%

Thanks to Jane Farries of Not My Dog for this: The British Home Secretary wants the right to charge wrongly-convicted prisoners £3000 for every year of room and board they received while incarcerated. The Home Sec, David Blunkett, who could not have been more delightfully named if he'd been an actual Dickens character, argues that the prisoners would have spent that much for food and lodging if they'd been free, instead of, you know, wrongfully imprisoned. Understandably, ex-guests of the state see it differently. Robert Brown served 25 years for a murder conviction that was overturned in 2002; now he owes the Crown £80,000, his girlfriend has left him and he's facing eviction from his home -- all in all, the very stuff of bad country songs. "I never contemplated suicide once while I was in prison," he says, "but it's different on the outside."

Comments

[Ken Goldstein]

Nobody's mentioning that Blunkett is throwing in, absolutely free, what must have been at least 100 haircuts.

[Bill]

plus there's the iron self-discipline and first-hand education on the legal system. wow! now how much would you pay?

[Leslie Cohen]

Don't forget 25-years of anal rape! Priceless!