In Brazil, prisoners can reduce their sentence by four days reading books

In Brazil, prisoners can reduce their sentence by reading books.

For every book they complete and successfully review, they can earn four days off their time behind bars.

The program is called “Remission through Reading.”

Prisoners are given several weeks to read an approved book.

Then they have to prove they actually understood it.

That usually means writing a report, review or completing another approved assessment.

If the work is accepted, four days are removed from their sentence.

They can do this with up to 12 books each year.

That means reading can reduce a sentence by as much as 48 days annually.

The idea is not simply to reward people for opening a book.

It is designed to improve literacy, education and critical thinking while giving prisoners an incentive to use their time productively.

For someone serving years behind bars, a book can become more than a way to escape mentally.

It can literally bring the release date closer.

One book.

Four days of freedom.