Slashdot Mirror
Which Computer Books For Prisoners?
Brian D. writes "I've recently begun working with a group that sends books to prisoners in federal and state prisons. We try to match their requests as well as we can. One request that we consistently have trouble filling is for computer books. This is not for lack of books, but because the prisoners' requests tend to be vague and their computer resources are obviously severely limited. Keep in mind that we send prisoners all types of books — from gardening and landscaping to cooking and sailing — about topics they don't have the resources to experiment with. With basically one shelf devoted to books on computing, what types of books should I tell them we should keep? What are the best types of books to send a prisoner who requests a book on 'computer repair?'"
How about a book that won't become obsolete like repair books would be. Perhaps a book on algorithms or the fundamentals of electronics.
Yeah because the prison rapes, shitty food, violence, and overcrowding isn't punishment enough. Not to mention the fact that when these people get back out into society depending on the state, they will be second class citizens and will have a hard time finding work and keeping honest. You sound like one of those just-world assholes who think everyone in prison deserved to be there or that hell isn't punishment enough for breaking a law. Murder is one thing, theft and drug possession is something entirely different.
Send them A+ certification books if they request something on computer repair. Maybe network+ as well. I would recomend All-in-One CompTIA A+ Certification Exam Guide, 6th Ed., by Michael Meyers I got my A+ cert using the 5th edition, and it was very well written (never too dry, and highly educational). I wouldn't go much beyond A+ or Net+, because A+ and net+ would be usefull books even if you had no computer to practice with. You could learn by rote and apply a lot of it when you had a computer later. Further exams such as MCSE would require, IMO, hands on while you are reading, as the concepts become more abstract.
It's fairly up-to-date:Patterson and Hennessy Computer Organization and Design.
It starts of really simply explaining the absolute basics, gradually going into technical details. Plenty of historical context, examples, lucid diagrams and a companion CD.
Also cures insomnia.
Stick Men
The Cuckoo's Egg?
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
I've worked at a prison for a couple of years now, and have tried to help encourage the inmates to read - it keeps them from being "bored" and getting into trouble, provides them with some knowledge, and gives them something more to talk about with other people than "thug life". The books wear out quickly for two reasons: 1) they're used, donated books to begin with. 2) they're read and shared A LOT. Especially when there is very little else to do.
:) )
They do get thrown about from time to time (by officers searching their cells, or as emergency "body armor" if things are about to jump off), but generally books are respected as they can be. Sure, some hide contraband in them (usually ineffective, at least in the cell searches I've seen - the officers have seen the same bad movies about prison you have). People are most likely asking for computer books because they're legitimately interested in the subject area. If they're looking for generic, thick books, they could easily have access to a Bible or other classic book of literature. (I suddenly have the image of an inmate saying, "Sure, I'll read 'War and Peace' it's not like I don't have the time anymore."
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
I don't know why someone modded this insightful. I should have been modded ignorant and inflammatory.
First of all, the government does not have the right to hold you indefinitely if they think you're a suspected terrorist. They never had the right to hold American citizens in that way even though they attempted to. However, a couple of Supreme Court cases showed the government the error of their ways and they give trials now.
Second, the government doesn't have the right to listen to any phone call you make unless you have presented yourself as an imminent threat. The entire TSP wiretaps and the FISA changes are related to foreigners and only enter into Americans when they are talking to suspected terrorist or known terrorist. The government never has and never claimed to have the ability to pick up on the line and listen to your Aunt Jane's cookie recipe or how your daddy never hugged you enough.
The election is over, lets quit inflating things beyond what they are to incite people. If you really and truly believe in what you said, then you need to look around a little more.
an inmate convicted of a non-crime (ooh! he had scary pictures!)
I'm no fan of laws against possession of data, but if you read the article, you get the impression that there's more to it. They found the pictures on his cell phone. People don't usually download pictures to their cell phone, so one may assume he took the pictures himself, using his cell phone.
Which is part of the reason why crimes against possession are a bad idea. If the police just charged him with possession of those pictures they might have decided that it was enough to put him in jail, and never used the resources necessary to investigate where the hell he got those pictures, which might be the important crime.
Why not have Hans Reiser teach his fellow inmates how to write file systems.
This will simply make the "mark of honour" more valuable, as well as produce hardened criminals. It won't deter crime, thought; the Romans, with their habit of crucifying criminals or feeding them to lions in their softer moments, couldn't do it, so neither can you, no matter what you make the punishment into.
Oh, and harder punishments also give criminals more incentive to kill the witnesses.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
but if we want to call ourselves a civilized society, we need to observe basic humanitarian standards.
with a simple thin client and internet access, inmates can be given free access to great quantities of information and also provided with a healthy level of mental stimuli. it'd be both cost effective/practical and humane. plus, giving inmates internet access would ensure that they had contact with the outside world (friends, family, legal counsel, etc.) without the risk of contraband being smuggled through.
this way we could ensure that the poor underprivileged minorities are subjected to a Kafkaesque nightmare where the prison system is just locking people up and throwing away the key, giving people no recourse for wrongful imprisonment or abuse by prison officials.
ÂFriends, family,..Â, as well as victims, outside gang-members et cetera. I think that putting the prisoner per default in the victim role is not going to go well in a society that has known some prisoner-pampering, and the response from the well-behaving citizen. The reference to Kafka is a nice one, but a very small minority of those references are correct. Most of the times the punishment is a deserved one. Most of the times the prisoner is a selfish person that only thought of bettering himself, regardless of the victim(s).
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.