British Convicts Set To Hug Trees

In order to pinpoint 100,000 ancient trees across Britain during its “Summer of Hugs”, the British Prison Service has held a national lottery whereby prisoners are allowed to participate in this program with the hope that hugging trees will lead to their early release (I may not have explained this properly, it was kind of hard to process)--

Inmates are signing up for a National Lottery-funded project to assess and measure our ancient trees.

One trusted method of gauging their age is to “hug” the tree trunk – linking arms around it to measure the girth.

The Prison Service insists it does not receive funding for taking part in the five-year scheme, and that it helps prisoners to improve their maths skills. But it is bound to benefit any inmates who take part, especially more serious offenders who have to persuade a parole board that they are fit for release.

Does it seem to you that every story that's coming out of Britain lately resembles a Monty Python skit? I keep checking Snopes on these stories, but unfortunately they're true.

I remember the good old days when prisoners were hanging from trees, not wrapping their arms around them. This kumbaya age we're living in is getting slightly more bizarre every day.

Hug a tree for freedom