Crime and Punishment

New Albion has a very small prison population - often nobody at all.

Video caption text
00:00
[Foreboding orchestral music]
[Gustav Holst: Mars, the Bringer of War]
00:22
[Music]
[Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance (Land of Hope and Glory)]
00:32
This is New Albion on Mars
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New Albion has a very small prison
population - often nobody at all.
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We have very little in the way of secure
confinement and try hard to avoid using it.
00:49
Unlike Earth - where crimes are commonly
punished by imprisonment, financial penalty,
00:55
or forced labour - New Albion sentences
in Megajoules.
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Sentences are served at the pedal dynamo.
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The energy produced this way is so tiny
as to be almost worthless, but it is
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exported to our energy grid
as a form of 'community payback'.
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The rate at which the court expects the
penalty to be worked is tailored to the
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convict, so as to leave them
nearly exhausted after each session.
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As long as the court's advised rate is
maintained, custody may be avoided.
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The alternative to the dynamo is
confinement of not less than
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twice the time it would take to
complete the sentence.
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Very few opt for imprisonment.
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The option of imprisonment is available for
only so long before generation must resume.
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The community payback nature of the
New Albion penalty is offered in exchange
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for the expectation that convicts
rejoin productive society.
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In the case of very serious crime, a jury -
or a convict themselves -
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may decide rehabilitation cannot
be reasonably expected.
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Convicts aren't burdens at New Albion for very
long; they contribute one way or another.
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[Dissonant clashing orchestral music]
[Gustav Holst: Mars, the Bringer of War]
02:51
[orchestral music continues]