UK Prisoner Scheme Is Set To Teach Them Coding

Prisons To Start Teaching Coding

There is little doubt that talented coders can make a very good living in either the gaming or software market. With prisons always looking to find ways to get their inmates into vocational training, however, it seems that this might present an interesting opportunity.

In a report via the BBC, UK prisoners are shortly set to be offered the chance to turn their lives around by learning how to code!

Very Specific Vetting

In the report, prisoners who apply for the course will be subject to very specific vetting. You are not, after all, going to want to turn a yesterdays car thief into tomorrows cyber criminal.

With £1.2m set aside for the project, however, they are clearly hoping to see some positive results!

Minster for Digital Margot James has said: “The government is committed to stopping the cycle of reoffending and a valuable asset to prevent recidivism is employment. Equipping offenders with coding skills will help them into life-changing work and give them a path to a hugely rewarding career.”

Replicating Success!

The initiative is looking to replicate a similar scheme applied in the highly-famous (infamous?) San Quentin prison. The ‘Last Mile’ project at that prison proved to be highly successful. Every person who took part in that trial has (at least yet) failed to re-offend.

As such, these types of projects clearly have some form of proven success and, on the whole, it all sounds like good news to me!

What do you think? Do you support initiatives like this? – Let us know in the comments!