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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
by jariel 6y ago
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 social baggage and expectations (and prejudices) whereas highly skilled labour tends not to.
And there are construction jobs literally everywhere.
Finally, they can pay very well. Everyone is in need of a good carpenter.
- MikeDelta 6y agoYou are right. I don't want to sound bitter but I guess this is easier to teach by trainers who are not very skilled or experienced; following a bootcamp might be enough to write a programming texbook for beginners and the inexperienced not able to tell the difference, whereas making a cabinet by an inexperienced trainer will immediately be obvious. In addition, I can imagine there is more funding available for this and therefore easier to milk.
- gowld 6y agoNot everyone has the ability to do a physically laborious job.
- timoth3y 6y ago> 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.
- the_only_law 6y ago> 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?
- timoth3y 6y agoMy construction experience was mostly moving heavy crap from one pile to another pile, so I can't really judge the relative skill of individual electricians or plumbers. However, an unskilled or sloppy electrician will have a pretty low life expectancy. Edit: Sorry. That might have seemed snarky. Most of these jobs have pretty strict licensing and certification requirements. An improperly wired or plumbed house is pretty dangerous, so a lot of effort is put into making sure that does not happen. I think the unskilled electricians would be filtered out earlier in their training.
- jariel 6y agoWell, the trades do vary a lot in quality. 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.
- ryanmarsh 6y agoTrue. I’ve worked with skilled trades electricians, industrial weld inspection, etc. The programmers found in your average IT department wouldn’t make it far.
- nyokodo 6y ago> Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? Yes, there should be more of an emphasis on the skilled trades but I don’t think it’s an either/or. I think most of the objections to one approach over the other are answered by having a range of options for inmates based on interest and aptitude. Tech would just be one option. There is enormous human potential for good going to waste in our prisons. There is no silver bullet, including efforts like this, but every ex-con given a real chance is a victory.