Prison Program Aims To Turn Criminals Into Coders

Press2ToContinue writes with news that San Quentin, a notorious California prison, has started a program to teach a class of inmates to write code. The first class will last for six months, and the inmates are learning about programming for eight hours a day. The hope is to give them the skills to find a good job after they leave prison, which in turn would reduce their chances of recidivism. Since the state's Dept. of Corrections prohibits internet access, the class only "pretends" to be online — they can't use internet-based resources, and nobody on the outside can see or use the software they create. One of the class's backers said, 'Almost every week there's epiphanies. And most of the guys in here, they've never touched a computer before. They are progressing beyond our expectations."

Comments

Of course!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what we need more of! Computer-savvy criminals!

Re:Of course!

[eth1]

For those who still want to believe that there's a long-term future in coding ... how DO you plan to compete with people who have no debt from education and will qualify for massive job subsidies?

You mean the ones that will probably never get hired because of their criminal record?

Re:Of course!

[Anonymous Coward]

As a convicted felon who served 2 1/2 years in prison and have spent the last 10 years working for ATT and IBM, I'm going to have to disagree. I make over $100k per year and I deserve it because I'm a good engineer regardless of my past criminal record. There's no reason they should not make as much as you and I if they have the skills.

When I was in prison, I actually tried to learn programming and was denied the opportunity to even read coding books because the department of prisons said it would make me a smarter criminal. So I went back to college when I got out and got my degree in computer science. I think the shift in the emphasis on training and education are absolutely critical to keeping people out of prison. Period. There is no other way. Prison as a punishment simply isn't enough to prevent crime or recidivism. People need something positive to strive for instead of constantly struggling to survive.

So, if you're a convict - do not give up! Educate yourself and be persistent and it will pay off, I promise.

Re:Of course!

[AthanasiusKircher]

Since such discrimination is illegal, and the government (and society) has an interest in getting these people jobs, expect any suspected discrimination to be challenged in the courts.

[Citation needed]

It's NOT illegal to discriminate against ex-cons. Otherwise, how it is that so many companies get away with running criminal background checks? Are you saying that all these companies pay to run background checks but then can't actually use them in the hiring decision process??

Things are changing a bit, though, and it is getting a little harder to discriminate overtly. For what's really happening, see for example, here:

Federal labor laws do not explicitly prohibit companies from discriminating against ex-offenders. ... Most of the rules spelling out what an employer can and can't do come from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is stepping up scrutiny of employer hiring practices. Corporate policies that immediately screen former criminals can disadvantage minorities and violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the agency says. In April 2012 it issued a "guidance"--a set of rules for companies to follow in evaluating job applications of released prisoners. The guidelines "create a burden on the employer to do a more individualized assessment" at the start of the hiring process, says Andria Lure Ryan, a labor lawyer in Atlanta, and not simply weed out ex-offenders from the start. The agency acknowledges there are valid reasons why some employers--a day care center, for instance--might not want to hire someone who has committed certain kinds of crimes. In such cases, the guidance says rejecting those applicants is OK. And there are federal regulations against hiring people convicted of violent crimes for jobs in airport security, among other fields.

In sum -- there's no explicit law against discriminating against ex-cons. It *IS* illegal to discriminate against minorities, and since a disproportionate number of ex-cons are minorities, the federal government has said businesses need to be careful.

In practice, however, what this means is now many companies tend not to do a background check immediately upon receipt of an application, but rather do some sort of interview or other screening first, then only do the background check later in the process.

At that point, employers still often toss people out of the pool of applicants for previous convictions. There's no federal law preventing that, particularly if the company gave them "fair consideration" early in the process before doing the background check. (Some states and cities have more policies to prevent such discrimination, such as the "Ban the Box" movement, but if a company can justify running a background check, it's hard to prevent discriminatory actions.)

Actually, I'd like to see the reverse of that . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

When I am sometimes debugging some " programmers' " code . . . I think that the programmer belongs in jail.

Re:No Internet?

[TeknoHog]

Code on a plane; it's wonderful.

Just don't use Python.

Dupe from Nov 25, 2013

[Anonymous Coward]

This story already appeared on Slashdot back on Nov 25, 2013. So how many ex-con coders have been hired since then? How successful is this program? Given the prevalence of really short "boot camp" coder training programs, many cohorts of these ex-con coders should have been released from prison (they're not training lifers or long-term convicts, are they?) and established themselves in the workforce. We should have some hard numbers by now about how effective this program is.