(12 Feb 2007)
Latvia, February 1 2007
1. Ws exterior Karosta prison
2. Ms prison sign
3. Ws pull out barbed wire fence to schoolchildren waiting at gate
4. Ms searchlight
5. Ws children squat-walking
6. Ms same
7. Ws push in trees to barbed wire
8. Ms children stand to attention
9. Ms man in uniform addresses children
10. Ms girl doing press-ups in snow
11. Ms children run in to prison, holding hands behind their backs
12. Cu prison sign
13. Ms man in uniform addresses children crouching on ground
14. Ms man pushes children into prison cell
15. Ms same man puts teachers into cell
16. Ms boy standing to attention at medical
17. Nurse talks to boy
18. Cutaway medical instruments
19. Cu nurse examines boy
20. Ms guard makes students stand with hands behind their head in corridor
21. SOUNDBITE in Latvian Lyudmilla Ullase, teacher
"Such excursions are not only useful for young people, but essential. Every class from every school should be brought here. Even for half an hour. That's my opinion. I have had many experiences in my life but the type of experience which the schoolchildren get here they cannot get at home, at school or on the street. Only here.".
22. Ms guard stands girl in cell
23. cutaway prison photos
24. guard takes photo of girl
25. Ms pan boys forced to squat against wall with hands outstretched
26. Ms children squat-walking along corridor
27. Cu guard opens door to interrogation room
28. Ms girl answers questions
29. Man in officer uniform asks questions
30. Ms girl gets up from doing press ups
31. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrei (didn't want to give surname)
"People who went through a similar experience in real life find this painful to accept. Young people think it's more fun but they care little about their health. We put a lot of physical pressure on people here but kids today don't do much sport and the slightest load has an affect on them and they start complaining their legs ache or something else."
32. Ms Andrei orders kids out of cell
33. Ms pan kids running on the spot with hands behind their head
34. Ms kids run down corridor
35. Cu Andrei hands out photos to children
36. Ms kids look at photos
37. Cutaway photos
38. SOUNDBITE (Latvian) Laura Bezneca, 9th grade student
I learned how awfully hard it was here. I never want to come back. I didn't think it would be so difficult. I thought it would be just a show, that I'd come and have a laugh but never imagined how hard it would be
38. Ms boys drink tea
39. SOUNDBITE (Latvian) Ilze Abersone, 9th grade student
"It was a very interesting and pitiless place. It was very difficult to do all the exercises. I guess the people who were here deserved to be here. Of course I believe that it was like this back then, otherwise why would they be torturing us like this?".
40. Ms Andrei kneels with camera
41. Ws Class stand in pose
42. Ms Andrei takes photo
LEADIN
Extreme tourism has come to the Latvian town of Liepaja.
For the more intrepid traveller there is a hotel offering room, board and 24-hour exercise classes for almost nothing.
But the only bars to be found in this particular hotel are on the windows.
STORYLINE
It's Latvia's strangest tourist attraction.
Karosta prison was built in 1905 by Tsar Nicholas 1 to house mutinous sailors from the Imperial Fleet. Later it was used as a military prison by the Soviets.
Today it's possibly the weirdest school trip these children will ever take. For the next two hours, they are to experience what life was like as an inmate.
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