Brit prisoners to be kept on the straight and narrow with JavaScript and CSS The UK's Department of Fun has gone public with plans to get prisoners skilled up for a world of code upon release rather than a life of, er, crime. The plan will see carefully vetted offenders sent through a four-stage process aimed at securing work behind keyboard, screen and mouse. The first stage of the course, devised by …
But on a more serious note, they really want this scheme to succeed so the inmates chosen are very strongly vetted for suitability. I wonder if the vetting has more to do with the lack of re-offending than the subject matter of the course? Would using the exact same methods of selection and training but for, say, machine operators, or woodworking etc give the same re-offending rate?
A relative who used to to do prison education said it was very poorly funded, and with little to no follow up. This course sounds very, very different to the run of the mill prison education
in the late 80s, early 90s I helped to deliver a program in the UK prison system that aimed to skill up offenders so they had attractive skills to offer upon release. The big driver then (and now?) is that if you get a released prisoner into work quickly, the chances of re-offending are reduced by an order of magnitude.
Back then, it worked well for those we could get through the courses (limited both by the number of places and the aptitude/attitude of the participants) but the programme ran onto the rocks as we tried to scale it. It was difficult to get enough competent people in place to deliver the content given civil service pay rates.
I wonder if the MOOC model might go some way to address that?
Would that be the NVQ word processing courses and the like with three inmates to each PC? Fair play to the teachers, they did a good job with some of those inmates, you are right about getting enough staff and also computers. I also wonder how many inmates will have the basic computer knowledge required to start doing these sorts of courses, granted it would only require basics but how many people have computers at home these days?
"but how many people have computers at home these days?"
Pretty much anyone who left school in the last 10 years will have the basics of using a computer already in their skillset, like reading and writing. And even many who left school up to 20 years ago may well have had at least some exposure to using computers at school
> The big driver then (and now?) is that if you get a released prisoner into work quickly, the chances of re-offending are reduced by an order of magnitude.
How does that square up with the fact every single job I have ever applied for has a nice little section that asks "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence" or words to that effect (sometimes they add "In the last 5 years"). And these are your run of the mill tech jobs, nothing special or security sensitive.
Having never been in the nick I never have said "yes" to that question, but I can't help but think that saying yes won't help your chances of getting the job. After all, if HR get two candidates for a job with more or less equal competency, but one was convicted of a crime in the past, they are likely to play it safe and go with the candidate with no criminal history.
I would go so far as to say that even if the ex-con was better than the other candidate, they still would avoid hiring them unless the company absolutely had no alternative.
If rehabilitation into society is the end goal, I don't think forcing ex-cons to declare themselves as part of the application process will help integrate them. More likely to segregate and make it harder for them to get a normal job.
"How does that square up with the fact every single job I have ever applied for has a nice little section that asks "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence" or words to that effect (sometimes they add "In the last 5 years"). And these are your run of the mill tech jobs, nothing special or security sensitive."
Depending on the crime and the sentence, you may not have to declare past convictions. The rehabilitation of offenders Act defines when convictions are "spent" and you no longer have to declare them. They may or may not show up in criminal records checks (enhanced or standard), depending on why the check is being done. (I've worked with people in this situation)
Having never been in the nick I never have said "yes" to that question, but I can't help but think that saying yes won't help your chances of getting the job
The flaw in that logic is this: criminals don't obey the law. It's more or less a requirement for the job. They have no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves.
© Sir Pterry, Nightwatch
As a Open University tutor, I regularly went into prisons to teach basic programming courses, ranging from open prisons, to high category ones (as one prison officer said once you need to rob banks to be in here).
The main problem was access to kit and the amount of hardware time they had. It got a lot worse when a lot of the resources went online, largely cutting off the prison population, so i'm not sure how that will be dealt with
Although initially intimidating, I found most of the students pretty keen and receptive, and quite enjoyed it.
It was quite an eye opener on prisons and my attitude changed to the fact incarceration main purpose should be rehabilitation, rather than the general public view that it should be punishment, so I am generally supportive of any schemes like this
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"Anyone convicted of sexual or online fraud offences will not be allowed on the course."
Having worked in prisons for a few years myself, I fail to see how a blanket ban on anyone convicted of a sexual offence from the course is helpful to their rehabilitation? It should be based on a risk assessment of the individual offender as some sexual offences have nothing to do with the internet.
Whether the public likes it or not a lot of people convicted of a sexual offence will be released from prison and unless we want them to be on benefits for the rest of their lives they will need to look for work.
I would have thought a web developer job is probably one that is low risk to members of the public. Certainly no more risky than a lot of other jobs they are encouraged to apply for when on license such as warehouse staff and van drivers.
I started to learn coding in jail in the UK at Rye Hill in 2004, I got out in 2007, I'm now no longer offending, I own a flat in London, I have a well paid job as a software developer and personally all jokes aside I think this is a good idea if it is well executed, good luck to them, all it takes is years of hard work .
while (InJail === true) {
learnSkills();
}
Oh that might be a problem
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/15/qa_bruce_schneier/
"As employees, technologists wield enormous power. They can force the companies they work for to abandon lucrative US military contracts, or efforts to assist with censorship in China. If employees start to routinely demand the companies they work for behave more morally, the change would be both swift and dramatic." - Bruce Schneier
Getting these guys to man the help desk would be awesome.
Should be able to sign them up cheap. More importantly they would have skills we just don't in the gentle art of (L)user re-education.I can only ever see an end user making a stupid mistake once, at best. Particularly if they knew the person they had to see was a 6' 3"ex-con, with a couple of tear drops tatted under his eye, or a version of "Happy" from SoA.==> Smiley face for multiple reasons
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