From Prison to Programming
Rick Wolter seems to be quite balanced. Read the last paragraph &quot;Life’s Not Fair&quot;.<p>Problem is that some people read his story and thinks. &quot;Oh, so teaching felons programming is a great way to reduce recidivism&quot;.<p>This kind of be-all-end-all solution always fails. Some years ago journalists in the US loved to tell coal miners that they should &quot;learn to code&quot; when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard could it be?<p>When media corporations started laying off journalists in droves a few years later, the journalists did not find &quot;Learn to code&quot; suggestions useful or even funny.<p>A more general solution to reduce recidivism should probably consist of two initiatives:<p>1) Educate felons when they&#x27;re in prison. It doesn&#x27;t have to be programming. It can be a craft, something academic, programming (if they feel like it) or some other skill. Whatever.<p>2) Reform the prison system, so inmates are treated as humans. E.g. with private corporations running prisons in the US, they have a strong motivation to create &quot;recurring guests&quot;. Contrast this with e.g. prisons in Scandinavia (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=0IepJqxRCZY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=0IepJqxRCZY</a>) that have the lowest rates of recidivism.<p>We know how to reduce recidivism. It is not an easy &quot;learn to code&quot; exercise. But are the US willing to make the changes necessary to create meaningful impact on the rates of recidivism - or shall we continue to be fed &quot;pull yourself up by the bootstraps! We found one guy who did it, and so can you!&quot; stories?