The new penal colony on Omega 50 opened for full operations today, amid much speculation over the effectiveness of this new venture.
Bretonia is one of the first Houses to establish a planetary penal colony and has been reluctant to do so after other examples of such colonies showed worrying signs of danger.
The main question on many people's lips is security.
In space, a prison station is far more secure.
The prisoners can't simply escape on foot and if there ever was any issue to arise inside the station, the commanding officers could simply threaten to ventilate the atmosphere and the prisoners would either have to agree or end up sufficating, a tactic that has been used for centuries on our prison stations.
In general, prisoner control is far easier on a space built prison station simply due to the hostile vacuum that surronds the entire station. Unless an escape was well planned and orchestrated by a large and organised group, the escapees would simply end up dead.
However all this is different for a planet based prison.
There is no hostile vacuum surronding the prison and the prison officers can't simply threaten to vent the atmosphere in case of trouble. The threat of immediate death is completely removed due to this and escapes are often far simpler, only added to by the sensors in the prison be possibly distorted or encountering interference due to atmospheric conditions.
There are benefits to a planet based prison though.
If the atmosphere outside of the prison is hostile enough to human life, it can provide the same effect as the vacuum for a spacebound prison station. Toxic gas can also be used to increase the threat of danger to the prisoners if they caused trouble and has been proven to be useful in such a role.
There is also the issue of cost.
In general, a small penal colony on a planet costs far less to set up than an orbiting prison station which is usually under constant attack from the rampant pirates.
Arguements aside, this is a day of occassion for Bretonia as it strives to reduce it's prison overcrowding issue and increase it's influence outside of the 'normal' House space.
The first transport, thoughtfully named Shuttle-01, touched down on the planet today, carrying the first few prisoners to the penal colony:
The planet in Omega 50 has been subject to various surveys by Bretonian authorities but their findings have not been released to the public for security reasons.
What we do know is that the atmosphere of the planet is breathable and suitable to human life but much of the planet is covered in ice or tundra. There appears to only be a thin line of habitable land around the equator of the planet but the prison station is apparantly situated elsewhere, somewhere in the freezing cold tundra. The planet's spin has also been measured roughly and has been found to be higher than other planets of it's class, suggesting high amounts of gravity on the surface.
Although little other information is available, we have been able to obtain this image of the system:
We hope to bring you further information as it develops.