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?'"
Well... How about NONE!!!
Remediation isn't working. Turn jail back to punishment instead of providing for '3 hots and a cot' where they get to watch cable, hang out, workout, play sports, and ,in general, live better than those serving our country. If you do let them out of their cells, make them work. A make the work hard. Our jails are a virtually untapped wealth of labor. Put it to good use.
Hell, I don't even have cable tv.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Oh. wow. alliteration.
Since you're obviously more enlightened than a medieval mental midget (oh, look, I can use alliteration also) what makes you think that our jails aren't harsh enough?
FWIW, cable isn't available. If it were, I still don't think I'd subscribe. Possibly, but I doubt it.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
I can see your point about some of the laws not being the way that I would have written if I were king. Alas, you and I are king. If someone elects to live in America, they must abide the laws. These laws are, for the most part, consistent with society at large. Most folks in jail aren't there for 'civil disobedience' issues.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Wow, most of the time I say Quaker, people think of oatmeal.
As I don't work too much in the field, I don't know what the different penalties are. Minor infarctions shouldn't be handled w/ the heavy hand I alluded to in the first post. I had the scenario of violent crime in mind. I should have stated that.
If someone had a bench warrant for not paying a speeding ticket in a town around here where the court was in session only 2 weeks, my harsh stance wouldn't apply as I see it.
It's a tough problem to figure out and I wish I had a solution.
How would you propose long term or life inmates be handled. Let's use murder for an example. The person will (hopefully) never be returning to society. Should they be relegated to serving the community through working off their life sentence? Since release is not an option, should they be relegated to hard labor? Not as in breaking big rocks into little ones, but doing the jobs nobody else is volunteering for?
An example of someone who I think could be offered reform would be a prostitute. While it may be the world's oldest profession and possibly not a reason to be in jail, I think that a person in this situation may be a prime candidate for reform.
What are your thoughts about this option? Instead of being sent to jail, have this prostitute provide evidence of successful completion of a course on general data entry at a community college. I don't have any figures, but I could imagine that the cost of providing training for this individual would be less than that of imprisoning them, especially since they aren't overly endangering the general public.
Before this conversation ends, I'd like to know what you've been reading. The last fiction I read was "Last of the Breed". I'd like to read what you've read to further develop my ideas.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
NP. I've had so many spelling and grammatical errors in my posts to /. that I've had to start including the disclaimer in my signature.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Alright.... Since you haven't provided anything constructive to conversation, I'll have to say farewell.
Best wishes to you.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Psyche, please read the other posts in the thread. I had a good conversation w/ Apropos. Let me know what other ideas you have in regards to though messages.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Due to the drug exception to the 4th amendment and my adventures in self medicating my social anxiety and Aspergers, I unfortunately had the opportunity to meet these people one month
You know why you're self-medicating? Because you're also self-deluding.
Stop pretending to have aspergers to get attention.
You're not special, you're "special".
Just because you never developed social skills doesn't mean you're disabled, it means you've never developed social skills. Sure, people with aspergers have social problems. But people with social problems don't all have aspergers. Get a clue, or go back to your hug box.