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from the jail-/prison/cell-inmates-127.0.0.1-"echo-coding" dept.
TechCrunch has an interesting report on an initiative to rehabilitate inmates in Maine:
If you omit some key details, all Preston Thorpe has to do to become a senior software engineer at a promising tech company is walk through the door.
For about six months, Thorpe was a prolific volunteer contributor to an open source project led by database company Turso. His work was impressive enough that Turso's CEO, Glauber Costa, quickly offered him a job. That was also when Costa realized that Thorpe is anything but an ordinary programmer.
"I checked his GitHub profile, and he mentions the fact that he is incarcerated," Costa told TechCrunch. "It's a story I've never seen before."
It's true: Thorpe is serving his 11th year in prison for drug-related crimes. Still, he has worked full-time from his cell at a venture-funded, San Francisco-based startup since May.
Thorpe is part of an experimental program in the Maine state prison system that allows incarcerated people to work remote jobs from custody. Though unconventional, these opportunities have proven immensely rehabilitative.
[...] The United States criminal justice system is plagued by recidivism, or former prisoners' return to custody after they have been released. Repeat offending creates a financial burden on the state and its taxpayers. But Commissioner Liberty has the data to show it's well worth the effort and investment to expand access to education and addiction treatment.
Is remote education and work a better way to rehabilitate people in prison? Are second chances worth the expense? Is the commissioner's last name a fateful omen?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday July 28 2025, @04:39PM (1 child)
Technically it appears that he sold drugs he had bought of the dark web. If he got high on his own supply the story doesn't tell. What his drug of choice is also left blank. Also getting out and getting high again might not be in his best interest. If he gets parole that is like an instant ticket back to prison if/when caught.
That said in the end of his blog post there is some mentioning of legal issues. So he is not getting out early. Which is a bit odd. He would seem like a model prisoner in some regard. A figurehead of success for the program. One would think he would be a given for early release. Perhaps it's not all sunshine and rainbows in prison-work land.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Undefined on Tuesday July 29 2025, @02:42PM
It's 100% consistent in and out of prison. When these prisoners get out, they'll have that public criminal record that will prevent them from being hired by... well, almost every business out there. The system is fundamentally designed for retribution. There's no actual intent to rehabilitate.
It's been like that for some time (basically since effective access to criminal records became available to business), but now that businesses are moving to ML system triage of records, resumes and job applications... looks like the creation and maintainance of the US's locked-in underclass is complete.
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