A novel way to get out of prison

Brazil is to offer prisoners in its crowded jails a novel way to shorten their sentences - by cutting four days for every book they read.

Inmates will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year.

The four federal prisons involved in the scheme hold some of Brazil's most notorious criminals, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must "make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing," said a government spokesman.

A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed "Redemption through Reading".

"A person can leave prison more enlightened and with an enlarged vision of the world," said Sao Paulo lawyer Andre Kehdi, who heads a book donation project for prisons.

"Without doubt they will leave a better person."