(In November, British Justice Minister Jack Straw discovered, and immediately canceled, a 10-year-old program for inmates at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire for “workshops” in comedy.
Scotland’s Justice secretary similarly canceled a program in November after he learned that officials at Saughton prison in Edinburgh had set up poker classes, sanctioning games run on paper earnings (but which the inmates converted into real trades and favors). Said one astonished official, “Next thing, roulette wheels … then a tap-dancing club … because after this nothing would surprise us.”
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2009.