Questionable Current Events

[physedluver]

This* article talks about how certain inmates in California are being allowed to complete firefighter training and subsequently serve as  auxillary firefighters during big emergencies.  I guess this came to the attention of the Christian Science Monitor as a result of recent wildfires in the state.  I read this article yesterday evening, and it has

Comments

[synchronaut]

I have a brother in a Colorado private prison, and my written exchanges with him have confirmed a lot of my suspicions about prison in general and private sector prisons in particular. The facility he's at has a reputation for brutish, under-trained, underpaid guards with a propensity for violence - particularly against minority and homosexual inmates. The very idea of monetizing prisons seems fundamentally flawed - it's naked incentive to encourage incarceration and recidivism. My brother says that the prison makes a big deal about their job training programs and classes, but in the 2 years he's been there he's never seen them offer a useful class for inmates that have a high school level education. The classes are almost all remedial secondary level classes - of no use to anyone with a diploma or equivalent. Why teach job skills to inmates that you want back in your jail, making money for you, as soon after release as possible