Interesting Facts

29th March 1971 - Lt. William Calley was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison for his part in the My Lai massacre. He served one day in prison, before President Richard Nixon ordered him transferred to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal. He subsequently served only three and a half years of house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning and was released on September 25, 1974, by federal judge J. Robert Elliott. I wonder if he's ever read the 5 people you meet in heaven. 2017 - The UK triggered Article 50 to begin negotiations to leave the European Union. 2017 - Germany switched over its terrestrial TV signals to allow the broadcast of HD signals. 

11th February 1990 - Leading anti-apartheid campaigner, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years incarceration.

Anyone who has been sentenced to more than 4 years in prison overseas is barred from entering the UK. (You are not allowed to enter the US if you have been convicted of 2 or more offences, or you have been convicted of / admitted to committing acts of moral turpitude. I guess I'd better be a good girl whilst I'm in Germany, or they might not let me go home.)

New rules have been introduced into jails in Italy; Italian prisoners will have their sentences reduced by three days for every book they read while in jail. (They will be able to learn up to 48 days off a year, but will only be allowed to choose from a list of carefully selected books. I guess that's what you would call, turning over a new leaf.

The UK government has announced plans to spend £85m building a secure college in Leicestershire that will hold up to 320 young people in custody.. (This should go under "sad facts", because it's in reaction to the number of deaths in custody over the last 10 years.  During that time, 163 young people under the age of 24 have killed themselves in prison in the UK The secure college is planned to be the first step towards several other so called "fortified schools" that will eventually cater for the vast majority of young offenders.)

This goes nicely with what Poetria said in today's reading on Skype .  Only 0.5% of the £95.6 billion budget for the NHS goes on food. (According to official figures some hospitals spend as little as 69p on each meal.  That might be about to change as hospitals, schools and prisons are about to be told to buy British.  Whether that will improve the quality of the food is debatable, but it will certainly make it more expensive.)  http://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/food.html

David Archer is thought to be Britain's most prolific shoplifter. (He has a string of 342 criminal offences, and has now been jailed for 18 months, just a month after he was released from prison on remand. It is claimed that he has 338 previous convictions, 261 shoplifting and theft convictions 13 Asbo breaches over a 48-year criminal career, and has spent 28 years in prison and 39 out of the last 40 Christmases behind bars. It's tragic.)

Currently there are 46 prisoners in the UK serving whole life sentences. 45 are men, and 1 is a woman. (A whole life sentence / tariff means there is no right to parole.  Life means life. Here is a list of prisoners who have served, or are currently serving these terms:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole-life_tariffs)

In England and Wales, every week, two babies are born in prison. (Quite often the child is taken from them at birth to be placed into care, but there are mother and baby units in 8 of Britain's 13 women's jails, so it is now possible for about 80 of those children to be with their mothers – but still behind bars. Not the best start in life.)

England has the highest rate of female imprisonment in the European Union.  ( According to statistics published by the Ministry of Justice, t he number of women jailed i n England has more than doubled over the past two decades to 4,144, but  many sentences are short, and in 2011 10,181 women were actually put behind bars.)

It costs British taxpayers £140,000 a year to send a young offender to prison. (This is six times more than a place at Eton. So, instead of making them "do time", maybe we should send young offenders to Eton, that should help the famous public school with its demographics too - win win.)

In England and Wales about 147 people per 100,000 are in prison. (Nowhere in Western Europe imprisons more of its population than that. Maybe they'll turn it into a new event for the 2012 Olympics.)

According to the Daily Telegraph, it costs an average of £667 to keep a prisoner overnight in a London cell. (It only costs £395 a night to stay at the Dorchester. Maybe the best way to cut crime is to present the prisoner with a bill at the end of his / her stay.)

Prison officers are assaulted, on average, eight times a day. (Imagine if this was you. I'd call the police if I were them.) Source: BBC News

Prison and jail are not the same thing in the United States. (It depends on the size and governing body of the facility. If you're sent to prison in the US you are serving state time (usually for serious offences), and if you're sent to jail you are serving county time (probably for a less serious offence). Paris Hilton, for instance, was put in jail, not prison. Of course if you commit a crime in the UK, you'll be slapped on the wrist and told to go to bed early.) Listen Here .

In the UK prisoners have to wear lurid green and yellow jumpsuits when appearing in court so they can be easily spotted if they try to escape. (Now that's what I call cruel and unusual punishment.)