WSBT news reports that inmates in Atlanta are being given the opportunity to win food by defeating new locks. Apparently the current locks don't work very well, allowing inmates to roam.

  • lknope

    That is simply ridiculous.  Defeating the lock should be it’s own reward.

    • http://mightybob.com thatbob

       Totally agree.  To get food, you should have to beat the octopus’s best time.

  • Stay_Sane_Inside_Insanity

    Ah, “Altanta,” that post-punk, grungy alternative to Atlanta.  So indie. 

    Edit: Aw, turns out it was Atlanta after all. But no apology for the confusion? Bad form, BoingBoing. ~_^

  • http://profiles.google.com/stephen.schenck Stephen Schenck

    Any write-up for us video Luddites?

    • Ipo

       They seemingly had a drunk camera man. 

  • Philip Elliott

    WSB, not WSBT

  • pupdog

    Strangely enough, defeating locks in places other than the jail can also get you free food.

    Or, uh, so I’ve been told…

  • http://txhoudini.com txhoudini

    They should expand the program. Teach them to be a couple levels higher in skill than your average script-kiddie and rent them out to test your network’s security. Inmates are taught valuable computer science skills plus the jail makes a little money.

  • travtastic

    Acknowledge their abilities and usefulness by letting them solve your problems for you. Dehumanize them by making the prize goddamned food.

    • http://twitter.com/lopakatanu BJ Rooney

      I was just thinking the same thing. It reminds me of the monkey trials I saw on a recent docu about human evolution and the determinism of our co-evolution, where the breaking point of learned behavior happened along the timeline. When do we cease being a single sentient species and become another ‘great ape’ to be studied?

    • http://mightybob.com thatbob

       I don’t know.  Last time I checked, humans still ate food.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cooper-DiBiase/100000445446098 Cooper DiBiase

      I don’t know either… I’ve never been incarcerated, but I did work on a ship for a few months one summer.  This ship, I should note,  boasted satellite television.  At that time Taco Bell was debuting the “grilled stuft burrito”, and just about the first thing that I did when I was discharged from that ship was to track one down.  And it was glorious.

      Now, if I were watching commercials like that for five or ten years…

      • Culturedropout

        Did you have to use “Taco Bell” and “discharged” in the same sentence?  Ulp…

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cooper-DiBiase/100000445446098 Cooper DiBiase

           Hey, man, if you’ve been employed as a sailor and the only discharge you’ve got has to do with bowel movements you’re golden.

  • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

    I remember when they opened  a brand-spanking new jail here in Austin and were a bit dismayed to find NONE of the locks worked. Doubt they handed out extra food though. Always thought electronic locks were problematical.

  • cfuse

    Parallel contest: snitch about broken locks to the guards and suggest improvements, win a shank between the ribs from the other inmates.