Slashdot Mirror
Online Learning Becomes Court-Ordered Community Service
An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo Finance reports that convicted criminal offenders can serve their court-ordered community service hours online by taking educational courses through Community Service Help. According to the article, there is a high correlation between criminal activity and lack of education. Who knew? 'About 40 percent of all U.S. prison inmates never finished high school, and nearly 44 percent of jail inmates did not complete high school. More current data shows that hasn't changed. In Washington, D.C., for instance, 44 percent of Department of Corrections inmates are not high school graduates. Less than 2 percent had 16 years or more of schooling.'"
More criminals online. Exactly what we needed.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Correlation != cause. Educating them will just mean smarter criminals. Not everyone can work in banking.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Does that mean educated people are less criminal or just better in hiding their crimes ?
And in the latter case, doe we really want to educate criminals ?
Of course there are many reasons that people don't finish school. Sometimes it's because they're not smart enough. Other times it's because they're bored out of their skulls, or family issues are pulling them away, or a million other reasons. Maybe this should be interpreted as yet another reason that we need to revamp schools so that they do more than just deliver a "one-size-fits-all" education to the middle of the bell curve. Education is expensive, but prison is far more expensive.
I don't think they became criminals because they didn't finish high school. Perhaps they didn't finish high school because they were already inclined to become criminals. My logic is as sound as theirs.
33% of statistics are simply repeated. Of cited statistics 67% are not repeated. More recently 33% of statistics were repeated.
"...give me all yo' money, or I'll bust yo' ass like Atahualpa at Cajamarca!"
Check out the girl on the main page... Sign me up!
And compare her with the unshaved, tattooed man. I guess they're trying to promote the (educated) bad boy gets the girl stereotype.
The sort of people sufficiently compliant to complete high school are the sort of people sufficiently compliant to think that we must do what we're told.
I have excellent school and university grades (mathematics, not some wishy social science). It was a waste of fucking time. I've stopped respecting the law. I shouldn't have bothered in the first place. Maybe one day I'll end up in jail. Who cares? Most people were quicker than me and learnt this lesson earlier.
And before you wonder, no, most people aren't locked up forever. You do your time, you make a life for yourself in jail, you come out again, do something outside jail, perhaps you get caught again.
Yeah, but is that her boyfriend? He could beat me up with one hand.
He's wearing a Bob Marley Festival tee-shirt. Obviously a non-violent drug offender busted for lighting up to get closer to God.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Interesting that if you actually look at the site (Community Service Help), for a criminal to get involved in this "non-profit" organization, they need a credit card number and a Pay Pal account.
The whole Community Service Help Website reads like a sleazy advertisement. Note the picture of the smiling, big breasted girl showing her cleavage right on the front page of this "charity".
This whole business appears to be a Slash-vertisement. Couldn't Slashdot reference an academic journal instead of some sleaveball Website that seeks to profit off of vulnerable people?
References:
http://www.communityservicehelp.com/
You think that's a good thing? Think again:
1. These people have a prior conviction.
2. Any job these people could possibly apply for will be competed over by far more applicants than there are jobs.
3. To have ANY chance to be chosen, these people would have to offer their workforce at a far lower price than anyone else.
In a nutshell, if it accomplishes anything, it's more pressure on "honest" people and, in the end, lower wages for everyone.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sadly profiting off of misery is a time honored tradition here in America, hell i wouldn't be surprised if over 75% of the "community service" forced upon people by the state didn't involve kickbacks or bribes. Its just slave labor, getting for free what one normally would have to pay for. Hell look at that judge that was sending kids to boot camp for any old reason he could think of because he was getting a kickback. in case you haven't noticed our courts have become just as corrupt as any banana republic, just sit in on some sessions and be prepared to be horrified. I have watched the rich walk away from some insanely long list of charges because his very expensive lawyer "had a quiet talk with the judge in the back" while some poor Rube with a $20 bag of weed got a year in prison. The only justice is what you can buy, no different than any South American hellhole we USED to make fun of. But power corrupts and money is power so now you have two systems, one for the rich, one for the poor.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
No. At least, one is not legally required to obtain a high school diploma. I believe most states permit people to drop out of high school at the age of 16, though there may be parental permission required to so so, etc. And, of course, most jobs require a minimum of a high school diploma. But as far as the law is concerned, it's not mandatory.
I'm sorry; I don't know what I was thinking!
Also, kids that get in a lot of legal trouble tend not to be able to finish a high school diploma. Juvenile detention centers do teach classes, but the credits end up being so fragmented as kids jump between detention and regular school that it's difficult for them to actually fulfill the requirements -- and that assumes they don't just fail their classes anyway.
I have personal experience with this. My daughter is very bright and capable, but suffers from a severe emotional disorder which leads her to make a lot of dumb decisions. Even though she typically does very well in school, her time in treatment centers, trouble with the law, expulsions from schools, etc., mean that she's chronically behind on credits. For example, she completed much of the first semester of Calculus this year (as a junior), but then got in trouble and ended up getting no math credit at all. She's now in a residential treatment center and taking dum-dum math because it's all they offer, but won't get any credit for it because she's already done it.
In her case, because she's so bright, the solution will likely be to take the GED as soon as the state will let her, and she'll pass it handily. Or else I'll pay for summer school classes, or something similar. She's smart enough, and has involved parents, so she has a chance to be able to make it. Kids with similar issues but without similar advantages are really screwed. Of course, if she can't learn to manage her mental illness -- which is very, very hard to do -- she's going to be screwed, too. We try to help every way we can, but we can't live her life for her, and as she becomes an adult the consequences of bad decisions are going to become even more severe.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.