New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Prisoners Not Allowed to Study Programming?
Ask HN: Prisoners Not Allowed to Study Programming?
32 by school_lunch | 21 comments on Hacker News.
I have a friend in federal prison (he developed a drug addiction and got arrested for theft). Not a bad person or anything, just had some problems. Anyways, he's always been interested in my job (software engineering) and has wanted to learn. I told him I'd send him some books to learn engineering, especially since he has a lot more free time to read now. I sent an introductory book on programming and it was not allowed to be given to him because it the prison said it posed a threat to order and security. I believe this is because they have access to a computer in the library where they can send some very basic messages, and they're afraid they'll figure out how to "hack" this computer. Considering that software engineering is the perfect job for an antisocial person, I feel this is a huge mistake by the prison system. If someone has the aptitude for software engineering, this should be encouraged as a path to reintegration with society. I was wondering what other people's thoughts were on this, do you think an introduction to Ruby On Rails, PHP or JQuery is dangerous to teach an inmate? Should this policy be changed?
32 by school_lunch | 21 comments on Hacker News.
I have a friend in federal prison (he developed a drug addiction and got arrested for theft). Not a bad person or anything, just had some problems. Anyways, he's always been interested in my job (software engineering) and has wanted to learn. I told him I'd send him some books to learn engineering, especially since he has a lot more free time to read now. I sent an introductory book on programming and it was not allowed to be given to him because it the prison said it posed a threat to order and security. I believe this is because they have access to a computer in the library where they can send some very basic messages, and they're afraid they'll figure out how to "hack" this computer. Considering that software engineering is the perfect job for an antisocial person, I feel this is a huge mistake by the prison system. If someone has the aptitude for software engineering, this should be encouraged as a path to reintegration with society. I was wondering what other people's thoughts were on this, do you think an introduction to Ruby On Rails, PHP or JQuery is dangerous to teach an inmate? Should this policy be changed?
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