From: Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Wed Jun 16 1999 - 18:25:41 MDT
At 05:19 PM 6/16/99 +0100, Charlie Stross wrote:
>The hypothesis they advanced was that illiterate
>people in this textually-oriented society are at a major disadvantage when
>it comes to doing just about anyything -- from earning a living to making
>use of welfare state benefits. Teaching inmates to read and do simple
>sums equipped them to survive on the outside without breaking the law.
>
So simple - it's amazing our lawmakers here in the US can't see the
obvious. Unfortunately, our solons will latch on to the one case of a
'literate' ex-con committing another crime as proof that the whole program
is flawed.
>It seems to me that if this can be substantiated, it would be a very
>cheap tool for reducing the long-term crime rate (by enabling ex-
>prisoners to re-integrate with society more easily).
>
>I'm a bit more pessimistic, however, about the idea of teaching useful
>vocational skills in a prison environment; we're moving out of the
>industrial mass-production era, and unskilled or semi-skilled labour
>just isn't in that much demand. Teaching a con how to work a drill press
>or lathe isn't really going to help them get a job as a waiter or a
>taxi driver ...
>
There is still demand for manual skills such as construction workers - if
we could get the unions to allow it...
Perhaps courses in courtesy and how to live in a polite society would be of
use. Teaching the inmates how to speak clear standard English would also
help them gain entrance to many low level jobs.
I have a vision of the prisons becoming such effective training facilities
that released criminals would be in higher demand than unskilled
non-ex-cons, promoting a wave of petty 'crime' for the express purpose of
gaining an education..
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