Vegetarian prisons ... .

You have to grant PETA this, they are wizards at earned media.

Taking an absurd story -- the early release of a prisoner because he is obese -- and making it a pitch for a vegetarian diet is brilliant.

And it is true a balanced vegetarian diet is very healthy.

But would it make sense to impose it in a prison? One thing I learned in prisons is that food is a central focus of all prisoners. Bad food lead prison riots.

While vegetarian food is hardly 'bad' food it might well be perceived as such especially by prisoners who see meat as manly (and macho stuff is big in prison).

Enough, I am devoting too much though to a PETA publicity stunt ... .

PETA urges vegetarian diet for convicts 
THE CANADIAN PRESS       
MONTREAL –

An animal rights group says a vegetarian diet could be just the ticket to keeping obese cons behind bars.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has made the suggestion to the warden of Montreal's notorious Bordeaux jail after the facility gave early release to Michel Lapointe, a 450-pound drug dealer nicknamed "Big Mike."The institution declared it couldn't accommodate his large frame.

Lapointe, who served 25 months in jail for conspiracy, drug trafficking and gangsterism, was paroled last week, three months early.

A Quebec judge knocked six months off the 37-year-old's sentence in May after prison authorities could not provide him with a big enough chair or table.

Tracy Reiman, PETA's executive vice-president, said in a letter Monday to Bordeaux warden Michel Gagnon that a "healthy, slimming vegetarian diet" would improve convicts' health and lower costs, preventing "people who break the law from breaking beds."

Full story here: http://mobile.thestar.com/mobile/canada/article/538487
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4