When I think of what prisons were e.g. in The Middle Ages and then look at something like this "Swedish prison cell" then I get some very mixed feelings: 1) Good that we don't starve or torture inmates anymore (unless it's done in secret ....) and 2) What the HELL is this? Is that supposed to be punishment for crimes that definitely should get punished????? No, it looks more like part of a cosy holiday cottage, and THAT's WEIRD when it comes to crimes and punishments. Some of the most heinous criminals who were caught and sentenced to prison were done so at an immense expense to the tax-payers of his/her country and these law abiding citizen may never even get close to such a nice looking habitat as this prison cell.

This book - and others by the same author - came into being because he was sentenced to prison. Robert Franklin Stroud (1890-1963) was a convicted - and feared - murderer, but being in prison he gained a reputation as a great ornithologist and became known as "The Birdman of Alcatraz". He had not changed his ways in prison as he, for instance, attacked and killed a guard. However, somehow all his misdeeds were overshadowed of his well deserved reputation as an ornitologist.

Robert Franklin Stroud

Would he have become an ornithologist if he had not been incarcerated for his crimes? That's not likely as he set out as a pimp and a murderer. In my opinion there are several angles to his biography and that may always be the case of inprisoned criminals who obtain fame by skills they gain while in prison. I, for one, don't want to forget what he did before going to prison over his achievements as a prisoner. He is/was a criminal who got the perfect setting for studies and writings: A prison cell. Without that cell and the sentence that sent him there he would never have achieved anything academic.

Theodore John Kaczynski

The exploits of the so-called "Unabomber", Ted Kaczynski (born 1942) include bombs that killed three innocent people as well as wounded almost thirty. These crimes go hand in hand with his considerable intelligence as a mathematician. What's also of a considerable size is his narcissistic personality that, luckily enough, made him confess to his crimes so that he wouldn't be declared insane ....

While in prison The infamous Unabomber has gained new fame with two books he wrote in his cell, one of them is "Technological Slavery", and the other one is "Anti-Tech Revolution". Would he have been able to publish these books had he not been in prison? Maybe, if he had not committed his crimes, but it was the prison that gave him the opportunity when he had ruined his chances of being an aknowledged part of the society.

Dante Alighieri

Neither Robert Stroud nor Ted Kaczynski has written "prison literature", i.e. books or articles about their life in prison. Both of them wrote about subjects that interest them and which they might also have taken up had they never been incarcerated. It wouldn't have been likely, but in theory, it might have happened. They got caught, were sentenced and imprisoned and that was the situation that started their literary career. On some points they resemble a great author like e.g. Dante Alighieri who wrote his masterpiece "The Divine Comedy" in exile. Others, like Sir Thomas Malory wrote "Le Morte d'Arthur" while imprisoned as did several other great writers. One of them wasn't in any way "great", but famous he is and will always be: Adolf Hitler.

I must admit that I don't like the lack of reason behind some prison sentences, and I do have mixed feelings about prison sentences that give criminals the perfect settings for writing and publishing or painting. Maybe the problem is that these thieves, murderers, muggers, etc., etc., are NOT all that different from ordinary people who don't commit these crimes. Many who toil in low-paid jobs without any status, although they are the ones who make the wheels turn around in our society, would benefit from some time in a modern prison cell like the one above. I'm indignant of such a life being called a "punishment" as it would be a blessing to many good hard working, but under paid people.