Unfortunately for people who want to keep moving while on crowded sidewalks it’s been ruled that even if you and your friends are blocking peoples paths through bustling Times Square it’s not a crime.

Matthew Jones had been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in June of 2004, but the New York Court of Appeals decided on Tuesday to overturn his conviction. At the time police has said that people had to walk around him and that he wouldn’t moved when asked and he flailed his arms.

Jones pleaded guilty in 2004 after spending a night in jail, but he later appealed.

To be convicted of disorderly conduct in New York, a person must be acting “with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof” and obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic, according to the unanimous opinion.

The court found that Jones’ behavior - standing in the middle of the sidewalk at 2:01 a.m. with friends - did not meet the definition.

“Otherwise, any person who happens to stop on a sidewalk - whether to greet another, to seek directions or simply to regain one’s bearings - would be subject to prosecution under this statute,” the opinion said.

Maybe this isn’t illegal, but it sure is rude when I encounter it on the streets of Toronto. Move to the side people!

We often hear news stories about those who’ve been wrongly convicted being freed from jail, sometimes after being incarcerated for many years. The newly freed often sue the legals system for wrongful confinement.

Three men in Birmingham, England who were recently freed after respectively spending 18, 18 and 11 years in prison for murder, were, in separate trials, awarded a total of 2.16 million British pounds.

Unfortunately for these men the Court of Appeal ruled in March that the mean will each have to give back 25% of their award to the government as compensation for their “room and board”. You know, those tiny cells they stayed in and the awful prison food that they were served for years.

Isn’t that outrageous!

Isn’t it odd and perhaps ironic how convicted murderer Paul John Fitzpatrick said about Death row last March when he was before a judge in Largo, Florida. He said Death row “is the calmest place I’ve ever been in”.

He was hoping to avoid a mere life sentence, which would place him in the general prison population. “I probably found the most peace I’ve ever had in my whole life (in his previous experience) on death row,” he said. “It’s just a lot easier doing time with murderers than it is with fools.”

The ironic part? The judge gave him life.

If you spent Valentines all alone look no further .. maybe www.hotprisonpals.com will have a just the right man for you. Yep. Some of America’s most desirable felons are lining up to send you love letters, poems and even proposals of marriage.

Some of the men are getting out soon while others are until 2023. If you like space in your relationships this might just be perfect.

The idea for hotprisonpals came from New York pop artist Sam Wagner, who began writing to a friend in jail several years ago. The prisoner then asked Wagner to write to his cell mate who had stopped receiving letters from his family.

Requests for letters from lonely prisoners kept coming, until Wagner was sending a monthly letter to more than 100 inmates.

With no access to the Internet, letters are often the only contact U.S. prisoners have with the outside world.

“Prisoners have real abandonment issues. Friends and family often stop writing after a couple of years,” said Wagner’s business partner, Jason Rupp, who built the Web site in 2003.

“The letters they get through the site are crucial to their well being. They need to know someone on the outside cares.”

The inmates, both straight and gay pay $19 each to have their photos and a short note on the site. Female inmates have been invited to join hotprisonpals but so far none have joined.

“We don’t require that prisoners say what crime they committed,” said Rupp, a 30-year-old photographer who runs the site from his home in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

“We take everybody. If they are murderers or rapists they are not going to put that in the ad.”

“Sometimes the messages get a little racy and we like that,” said Rupp. “We pride ourselves on having the hottest prisoners on the Internet.”

Pen pal friendships often lead to prison visits and serious long-term relationships.

The prison marriage of Erik Menendez — convicted with his brother Lyle of the 1989 murder of his wealthy parents in Beverly Hills — has helped generate interest in prisoner dating.

Menendez married a woman with whom he had corresponded for years from jail. A book by his wife Tammi, “They Said We’d Never Make It”, heavily romanticizes the unconsummated relationship.

“It’s a thrill for women. These are good looking guys and they can seem really exotic from the outside,” said Rupp. “It’s a fantasy. You don’t see any of their flaws.”

“We have scoured the prison floors and checked each bunk bed, both top and bottom, looking for the men that you have dreamed about,” the site says.

Ladies? Get your pens ready.