Agreed: Bicycling on the open roads is good exercise. OK, then, how about prison inmates on bikes on open roads? Hey, what could possibly go wrong?
Someone in France thinks this is a good idea and good way for prisoners to stretch their legs a little. That’s why this month about 200 inmates from a prison in Nantes, a city in the western part of the country, will get to hop onto government-supplied bicycles for the first ever Big House Tour de France. (They’re not calling it that, but we kind of like the sound of it.)
The prisoners will be followed around by 124 bicycle-riding guards. Let’s see now: 200 prisoners and 124 guards. By our math, that leaves 76 unaccompanied felons pedaling toward freedom on the French countryside.
Anyway, the group ride will cover about 1,400 miles through 17 cities, and will end in Paris, just like the non-penal version of the Tour de France. One assumes there will be a head count of those crossing the finish line.
One participating 48-year-old prisoner said of the ride: “It’s a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison.”
Apparently no one informed him that “escape” and “break” are not the words race officials were waiting to hear.
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