Hey yall -- I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor, which wrote the curriculum and is running the program from an instruction and student success standpoint. This is my baby and it's exciting to see it getting some attention this week -- I think that prisons should be schools by default and I hope that public perception changes. AMA if you're curious.
Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
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Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#22San Quentin prison seems to be doing a great job at engaging prisoners. The inmates write beautiful answers on Quora too.
I thought they weren't allowed internet access? > Of course, as the class is taught inside a prison, it has an extra obstacle—inmates don't have access to the Internet at all, and their only time spent with a computer is inside the classroom.
They are given printed quora questions by Last Mile staff, then they write the answers longhand. It's old school.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought they weren't allowed internet access? > Of course, as the class is taught inside a prison, it has an extra obstacle—inmates don't have access to the Internet at all, and their only time spent with a computer is inside the classroom.
They are given printed quora questions by Last Mile staff, then they write the answers longhand. It's old school.
Thats right. The answers come with a standard footer as well saying that they do not have internet access and that the prison staff was proofread the answer before posting.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#24Does anyone here know the people who are working with code 7370? I'd love to help in some way. I don't know if they're looking for code reviews or tutoring, or what I could provide, but I'd love to be of help. It seems like providing the inmates access to something like http://kapeli.com/dash or mdn locally would be a godsend.
I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor -- we build the cirriculum and are running the daily events. Please contact me (shawn@hackreactor.com) with your interest.
We have local copies of MDN installed and are adding a dash equivalent over xmas. (Dash is osx only -- I forget the equivalent for linux, which is all the institution could afford.)
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#25Does anyone here know the people who are working with code 7370? I'd love to help in some way. I don't know if they're looking for code reviews or tutoring, or what I could provide, but I'd love to be of help. It seems like providing the inmates access to something like http://kapeli.com/dash or mdn locally would be a godsend.
Same here, I'm only about 30 minutes away from the prison, I wonder if they would be open to book donations? I'm sure some O'Reilly and CS fundamentals books would help them out when they are out of class and don't have access to a computer.
Book donations: yes please! We have a library but we are building a permanent program (not a one-time thing) so a bigger library is better.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#26Hans Reiser is at San Quentin.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#27> While the goal of Code 7370 is laudable, faced with competition from younger programmers, many of whom have handled computers since they were toddlers, will it make any meaningful difference for inmates? For now, it's too soon to tell. Of course it will make a meaningful difference for inmates (if only because in terms of all things one could do in jail, this is probably in the top 1% in terms of intellectual stimu…
"This sort of line of thought is so harmful."
Even if the argument you mention is wrong, it's only harmful in a sort of fluffy world where good things die when looked at critically.
There's nothing magical about programming that makes it different from any other industry.
These days there's immense competition in every industry. If anything, your argument seems to be that programming is different from other industries and that just skills can get you anywhere even if there appear to be many others who also have skills and better looking resumes. I hope that's true but let's at least look critically.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are tons of college grads that either didn't study computer science at all, or studied computer science and didn't do very well (and don't like it enough to do it outside of school) that are getting high-paying jobs (relative to general populace) at lots of big tech companies. The tech industry fancies itself a meritocracy/progressive -- programs like this will show just how much of that perception is real.
> There are tons of college grads that either didn't study computer science at all, or studied computer science and didn't do very well (and don't like it enough to do it outside of school) that are getting high-paying jobs (relative to general populace) at lots of big tech companies. This also flips the other way: I've interviewed PhDs with little ability to operate in an engineering environment. The industry is def…
Agree, but then again, isn't there some psych theory that explains that (figures, since the PhDs probably formulated them) -- that once you get so fixated/advanced on a certain object, you lose the ability to do the super basic stuff (or are at least bad at it since you haven't done it in so long?) -- but maybe that's just apologism.
And definitely, tech is arguably the most meritocratic high-paying field out there. Just the ability to build something on your own with your skills without anyone's permissions is not common (i.e. you can't just open a bank).
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#29This is offered through a great program at San Quentin called The Last Mile. I got to know one Chrisfino Kenyatta a bit (a founding member of the program while he was an inmate) when our company was at RocketSpace, where he works. One day shortly after he started at RocketSpace, he asked how I was doing and I said "eh, surviving". Not knowing his background, I was caught a bit off-guard when he told me he had recentl…
I came here to talk about Kenyatta, too. For sure thought I'd see his name in the article.
Re: Inmates at California’s San Quentin prison learn to code
#30Hans Reiser is at San Quentin.
He appears to be at Pleasant Valley now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser