Title: I have a friend in federal prison (he developed a drug addiction and got arrested for theft).  Not a bad person or anything, just had some problems.  Anyways, he&#x27;s always been interested in my job (software engineering) and has wanted to learn.  I told him I&#x27;d send him some books to learn engineering, especially since he has a lot more free time to read now.  I sent an introductory book on programming and it was not allowed to be given to him because it the prison said it posed a threat to order and security.  I believe this is because they have access to a computer in the library where they can send some very basic messages, and they&#x27;re afraid they&#x27;ll figure out how to &quot;hack&quot; this computer.<p>Considering that software engineering is the perfect job for an antisocial person, I feel this is a huge mistake by the prison system.  If someone has the aptitude for software engineering, this should be encouraged as a path to reintegration with society.<p>I was wondering what other people&#x27;s thoughts were on this, do you think an introduction to Ruby On Rails, PHP or JQuery is dangerous to teach an inmate?  Should this policy be changed?
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