A JAIL IN GEORGIA is taking the unusual step of encouraging its prisoners to break out of their cells – as part of a trial of its new security systems.

Officers at the Fulton County Jail are replacing the locks on their cells, after the older ones became so rickety and unreliable that inmates were able to get out of their cells and roam the premises almost at will.

But before they spend millions of dollars replacing the locks with new ones, they want to make sure they’re investing in the right replacements – and so prisoners are being given an incentive to try them out.

WSBTV reports that existing prisoners who have proven the most adept at breaking the old locks are being temporarily reassigned to other cells, which are fitted with newer electronic locks.

The chief jailer, Col Mark Adger, has told those inmates to make every effort to break out of the cells – offering them extra meals if they can prove any vulnerabilities in the system.

In his own words, successful escapees will be offered “free commissary on the house – the big house.”

The jail is also devising new security procedures and staff training to ensure that when prisoners are locked into their cells, they stay there – and to deal more quickly with anyone who gets out without staff approval.