161–170 of 181 posts
> On average, it cost about $75,000 a year to house a prisoner in a state like California Damn, that's, um, a lot. And here I am, with a degree in CS and over 2 years of experience, earning less than one-third of it in my third world country.
Can we please stop discriminating ex-cons? Stop asking them this on job applications and hosting contacts
This seems like a neat idea, but wouldn't it be more pragmatic to teach them skills they can use more universally to get jobs for which maybe there's much more cultural inclination? Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? Maybe it's prejudiced, but all the people I know that 'got in trouble' eventually made their way to construction crews. It worked well. White Collar jobs come along with a ton of other…
> Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. I worked plenty of construction jobs when I was younger. Electricians and plumbers are blue-collar jobs, but they tend to be pretty smart people.
In 2011-2014 I taught English and mathematics as a volunteer in a prison, and unless you’ve been there, nothing can prepare you for how truly awful America’s prison system is. The federal system is a little better, but when you get down to state prisons it gets exponentially worse. In my humble opinion, we have a vengeance and retribution mentality towards prisons in this country, when we should have a rehabilitation…
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We’re not even in the Bay Area and pay (just barely) 6-figures to fresh college grads.
Guessing they're decent candidates from decent CS programs?
But to the point of your question, no. It’s Boston-area typical entry-level SWE, whether self-taught, boot-camp, or college grad. We’re not even top-15 CS program competitive at that rate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. I worked plenty of construction jobs when I was younger. Electricians and plumbers are blue-collar jobs, but they tend to be pretty smart people.
> This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. Perhaps another unpopular opinion, but you don’t even have to be a good programmer to make what most people would consider decent money. Is this the same for any trades?
Especially carpentry, which is the most varied.
You can work on a construction site, framing and drywalling and never pick up any real skills outside of that narrow set.
Carpentry skills generally only come by doing. So find one who's older, or who came from a family of carpenters.
Can we please stop discriminating ex-cons? Stop asking them this on job applications and hosting contacts
Certain fields legitimately should ask. If you’ve been convicted of financial crimes or theft a bank should know before hiring you. Likewise schools should know if you’ve hurt children before.
Tangential question - is the ability to "code", i.e. develop software, an innate talent or can anyone learn to do it well enough with sufficient training and self-motivated work? Will there be a percentage of incarcerated, or bootcamp students for that matter, that just won't get it?
My personal opinion based on experience, it's similar with driving but harder. If you want to learn, anyone will eventually able to achieve "average" / "good" level. But only a portion with aligned interest, dedication and passion can breakthrough to expert / master level. And for those who haven't had any interest on those topics and don't want to try won't be able to.
Haven’t they been punished enough
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>the country’s 83 percent recidivism rate Holy shizz, that's a lot. It's as if US laws and prisons aren't there to rehabilitate an individual but to turn him against society for good, making him a returning "customer" so that certain interest groups can keep profiting. But that's just probably my imagination running wild.
One theory I've heard is that for some particularly bad areas, Baltimore for example, the purpose is to keep people off the street for as long as possible to give young people a chance to grow up without seeing crime as a viable career choice. The idea being that some neigbhorhoods are too far gone, and rehabilitation won't work when people will be released from prison back into crime infested neighborhoods. Whether…