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From Prison to Programming

corecursive.com

51–60 of 121 posts

Re: From Prison to Programming

#51
For me it was the other way around: I went to prison to stop programming. Well, sort of.

When I was drafted (involuntarily) into the Israeli Military, I worked as a programmer. It's much cheaper, you see, to have a programmer who doesn't get paid - assuming you can filter our those teens who are good enough to be able to do the job.

Now, I was only 18 years old. During my military service, my political consciousness developed, and I started thinking about what the Israeli military was doing with the product of my work, and for what purposes. I also became quite critical of the various foreign clients of the technology we were working on. It got to the point where I not only thought what my unit was doing was illegitimate, but in fact, I lost my support for the regime.

So, I quit. The thing is, quitting mandatory military service is a bit more difficult than quitting a civilian job... and in order to quit, I had to go to prison. Or rather, officially, you can't quit, you can only be discharged; and for that to happen you have to resist enough for them to believe they won't get any work out of you, and then they typically discharge you for "inappropriate conduct", or for being determined to have an (inspecific) psychological problem.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#52
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God I fucking hate the response "learn to code!" to everything. People seem to think everyone being a programmer is needed otherwise humanity will fall. Honestly it is one of the stupidest things I have heard. Could more [good] programmers be a good thing? Sure, we can always do with more good programmers. However the truth is we need more of many, many types of people. Teachers, personal care workers, doctors, nurse…

Obviously not everyone wants to learn to code. I dont think anyone mistakenly believes that.The (possibly overused) advice to learn to code is prevalent because software is prevalent Ill repeat what ive said elsewhere...It is a legit path to a rewarding job which is open to those without degrees and who might have felonies on record. Since starting Underdog Devs Ive seen it over and over. With real commitment its ver…

Rick your story is so inspirational, congratulations on how far you’ve made it and being able to help other people.

Good to see you here in the community.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#53
post #25

Rick Wolter seems to be quite balanced. Read the last paragraph "Life’s Not Fair". Problem is that some people read his story and thinks. "Oh, so teaching felons programming is a great way to reduce recidivism". 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 "learn to code" when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard…

I work with people in prison, or as they are commonly referred to within some circles, justice involved individuals. The issue here is not skilling these people in trades, it’s really about working on mental health and the underlying reasons why they are in prison. Until those challenges are addressed, these people mostly will not succeed. Many have not experienced much of a « normal » family life or friendships that…

"justice involved individuals"

Do you find prisoners/former prisoners get any benefit from new labels like this?

Timpson Group uses non euphemistic language: "people who have criminal convictions", and proactively hires them.

https://www.timpson-group.co.uk/timpson-foundation/ex-offend...

Re: From Prison to Programming

#54
Hey everyone. My names Rick. Im the person Adam is interviewing. If any of you are interested in learning more about Underdog Devs, please reach out to us on Twitter @RwoltX and @UnderdogDevs or directly to underdogdevs.org

We are always looking for people who would like to get involved

the most common involvement is mentoring and pair programming

we also could use help in other areas...someone to help develop partnerships, admin, and general marketing.

as for donations ... Everything we receive goes directly to the mission. We do not take a dime to pay for any salaries. None of us do. We work as volunteers. Every penny we receive goes to learning resources and to the stipend program to pay the bills of our most gritty who are held back due to their financial situation.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously not everyone wants to learn to code. I dont think anyone mistakenly believes that.The (possibly overused) advice to learn to code is prevalent because software is prevalent Ill repeat what ive said elsewhere...It is a legit path to a rewarding job which is open to those without degrees and who might have felonies on record. Since starting Underdog Devs Ive seen it over and over. With real commitment its ver…

Rick your story is so inspirational, congratulations on how far you’ve made it and being able to help other people. Good to see you here in the community.

thank you for the kind words. I was really lucky to get another chance considering the severity of my mistakes. Helping others get their life on track seems the least I could do.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#56

I think the biggest problem prisons have is that you collect large groups of criminals and let them hang out together. It breeds an even more concentrated form of criminal. Often times minor criminals need to join racist gangs just to survive which Is inhumane. I think they should all be separated from each other. They should be put in single cells, and given access to as much education as they want, and just basical…

Solitary confinement is literally inhumane and drives people to suicide. This is one of the only realistic suggestions I can imagine that would make the US prison system worse .

just want to add that you are correct imo. confinement was overall the very worst experience of my 18 years in prison.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#57
post #40

Rick Wolter seems to be quite balanced. Read the last paragraph "Life’s Not Fair". Problem is that some people read his story and thinks. "Oh, so teaching felons programming is a great way to reduce recidivism". 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 "learn to code" when the mines shut down due to Washington politics. How hard…

God I fucking hate the response "learn to code!" to everything. People seem to think everyone being a programmer is needed otherwise humanity will fall. Honestly it is one of the stupidest things I have heard. Could more [good] programmers be a good thing? Sure, we can always do with more good programmers. However the truth is we need more of many, many types of people. Teachers, personal care workers, doctors, nurse…

> Teachers, personal care workers, doctors, nurses, etc.

All of which having a criminal record disqualifies one from.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#58
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work with people in prison, or as they are commonly referred to within some circles, justice involved individuals. The issue here is not skilling these people in trades, it’s really about working on mental health and the underlying reasons why they are in prison. Until those challenges are addressed, these people mostly will not succeed. Many have not experienced much of a « normal » family life or friendships that…

"justice involved individuals" Do you find prisoners/former prisoners get any benefit from new labels like this? Timpson Group uses non euphemistic language: "people who have criminal convictions", and proactively hires them. https://www.timpson-group.co.uk/timpson-foundation/ex-offend...

my 2 cents .... its unnecessary. It often then just leads to me having to explain what that term means. I would much rather use formerly incarcerated. Its a fairly neutral term, imo. Its not loaded with negative connotations like terms such as convict.

Also the term "justice impacted" seems to strip us of all agency. I would like to retain at least a smidgen of autonomy in my decision making.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solitary confinement is literally inhumane and drives people to suicide. This is one of the only realistic suggestions I can imagine that would make the US prison system worse .

just want to add that you are correct imo. confinement was overall the very worst experience of my 18 years in prison.

I can imagine that is true. I think OP has some rationale, but he/she has done very little second order thinking of the consequences of such isolation. It's very easy to make such harsh armchair statements on the Internet, but I think more reflection is needed.

Re: From Prison to Programming

#60

Hey everyone. My names Rick. Im the person Adam is interviewing. If any of you are interested in learning more about Underdog Devs, please reach out to us on Twitter @RwoltX and @UnderdogDevs or directly to underdogdevs.org We are always looking for people who would like to get involved the most common involvement is mentoring and pair programming we also could use help in other areas...someone to help develop partne…

I enjoyed the podcast and also reading your balanced replies on Hacker News. It seems like you're not easily offended and you've had enough experience to understand why people take other (extreme) views.
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