Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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21 Hour Prison

because time is subjective
  (+12, -1)(+12, -1)
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This prison occupies a basement equipped with artificial daylight. All the clocks in the prison are designed to run 14.2% faster than normal clocks, so that a prison day only takes 21 real hours (but 24 hours in prison time).

In all other respects it works like a normal prison. Subjectively, a prisoner will be spending the same amount of time in prison from his own perspective, but in reality the sentence will be reduced by 12.5%, saving taxpayer's money.

kinemojo, Jan 07 2010

Comparative study of submariner's watch schedules http://www.ncbi.nlm...gov/pubmed/17393936
morning is when there's donuts [lurch, Jan 07 2010]

[link]






       Absolutely ingenious.   

       However, there are the small matters of radio, TV, newspapers, correspondence, family visits etc.
pocmloc, Jan 07 2010
  

       Excellent. The visits should not be a problem, news is a problem though, unless you just censor all incoming time information. Seems like it provides an even harsher punishment by alienating the prisoners from actual time. The time may need to be reduced even more to correct for this. Who knows how much money could be saved!? Bunned!
fishboner, Jan 07 2010
  

       Masterly [+]
8th of 7, Jan 07 2010
  

       I'm wondering how you might be able to work out this was happening. You'd be able to time a clock against your resting pulse rate. Thyroxin in the food maybe?
nineteenthly, Jan 07 2010
  

       Bunned, so long as you drug the prisoners. If you merely speed the clocks up, time will appear to go faster, which defeats the object. If you can drug the prisoners to affect their perception of time, though...
Selky, Jan 07 2010
  

       ...or accelerate the entire Universe (apart from the prisoner) to near-light-speed so that the prisoner experiences the passing of 20 years during what everyone else perceives to be a 5 year prison sentence.
hippo, Jan 07 2010
  

       Perhaps, over time, the prisoners would adjust operating on the accelerated prison time, just that fraction faster than they were, reflexes tweaked, fingers and feet more fleet, thoughts even processed and used perhaps before they would have sprung to a mind shackled to Outside Time. And perhaps, given enough time, paroled prisoners could find themselves at an advantage over the populace, better able now to pick pockets or lift shops leaving good time for absquatulation, where previously such activities were sufficiently hit and miss as to be characterised as squeaky bum time.
calum, Jan 07 2010
  

       [calum] Possibly the only sentence ever written to include "absquatulation" and "squeaky bum time". Except that one of course.
hippo, Jan 07 2010
  

       If we try hard enough, we might become the first page to have a negative number of results on Google.
nineteenthly, Jan 07 2010
  

       //the sentence will be reduced by 12.5%, saving taxpayer's money.//   

       While the idea is attractive, wouldn't shortening sentences by the same amount achieve the same end, and without the difficulties?
ldischler, Jan 07 2010
  

       If you also gave them all free amphetamines, could you make time seem to go more slowly for them and further shorten prison sentences?
nineteenthly, Jan 07 2010
  

       [19thly] Not really, the idea is to distort the prisoner's time sense so it feels longer than it actually is. Less time is required for the same apparent sentence if the prisoner feels it is longer. 14% might be to much, but if everything in the prison indicated a second was 5% or so faster, I don't think most people would be aware of it, especially if there was a holding cell that transitioned to it over a couple of weeks prior to entering the general prison.
MechE, Jan 07 2010
  

       If subjective time is the issue, a few doses of LSD and twenty years could pass in a week.
ldischler, Jan 07 2010
  

       Submariners, while underway, live in a condition of isolation from outside time much as you propose. The US submarine corps utilizes an 18-hour day, 6 hours on watch, 12 off. Alternatives are being studied; see link.
lurch, Jan 07 2010
  

       Certainly yes, your option a]: I don't think I would be comfortable with any prison system that, following parole, releases serial rapist buggerers into the wild, with a skill set which enhances not only their ability to entrap a buggeree but also therefore also to carry out ~5-14% more such buggerations within their lifetimes.   

       Perhaps the "prison as vengeance" wing might like this prison for such prisoners, as they would get some shock as the anticipated parole time ticks round, only to be told by some pudgy Goose Green tache sporting warder gives him or her a metaphorical socked pool ball to the baws by revealing that said prisoner has a further 5-14% more prison time to serve before getting to sit before the parole board.   

       Which leads me to the possibility of a creative judge sentencing some buggerer to a Zeno's paradox prison sentence, just to see what the supreme court (small caps intended) make of that, eh.
calum, Jan 07 2010
  

       Most sentences with a time limit are intended to be punitive or opportunites for education.   

       If the sentence is inteded to be a sequestration sentence (life without parole) the opposite idea might represent some savings. Stretched days would mean fewer meals (if slightly larger to maintain caloric intake, but cumulative prep time is reduced), fewer daily activities (guarding costs), fewer clean up tasks (showers, clothes, mostly water costs).
MechE, Jan 07 2010
  

       Aren't places like Nebraska used for slowing down the perceived time, which equals to speeding the actual time, regarding spatial relativity.
xkuntay, Jul 04 2014
  
      
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