A Brazilian city is hosting a beauty contest - for female prisoners.

As well as physical beauty, inmates will be judged on their personalities and their poetry writing.

Prison authorities in Sao Paulo are behind the move aimed at improving morale, reports Folha se Sao Paulo..

Prisoners will be competing for cash prizes of up to £50 which they can put in a bank or give to their families.

All female prisoners in the state can compete except the badly behaved and the severely ill.

A Sao Paulo police spokesman said: "We think it is a different way to raise their self steem and to make them feel good about themselves."