What a GREAT idea!

[Lady tehMa]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/03/18/sk-lac-la-ronge-1003.html

A question of what to do with inmates . . . some folks in Saskatchewan have the right idea

[JLives]

That is a fantastic idea! Thanks for posting.

[kgcayenne]

This makes me smile.

[nolanrh]

This sounds nice. But I'd like to see a summary of the costs to have the prisoners trained to do it vs how much it would have been to have a private contractor do it...

Obviously we get other benefits like prisoners being trained but how much did this program cost, and how on earth was that left out of this article.

[I Think]

I agree that it is a great idea!!

But a republican I know says that by having cons do work like that, you disadvantage contractors and workers that have normal expenses & therefore cannot compete businesswise.
He also says that by teaching someone in jail, you are giving the con an advantage that is not available to folks who are not incarcerated.

Personally I think if we set up opportunities for learning and for doing meaning full work, people would be far less likely to return to jail after release.

[kgcayenne]

Well, how many contractors would give up their profits for the sake of affordable housing? Besides, without profits at stake, how much do you want to bet that the inmates' final product is of better quality than a contractor-built product? Just ask any cabinet maker or finshing carpenter about for-profit contractors' cutting of corners.

It's not like this house was sold on the open market with profits going to the prison. The contractors still have that market to produce profit.

[cutter7]

excellent idea! Our jails should have more work and education programs.

[I Think]

Lest you get me wrong, have long been a proponent of setting up jails where inmates teach each other, & work co-operatively on projects such as this. You get to go to this kinder and gentler jail as long as you get along. If you mess up you get bounced back to the bars and concrete, until you earn your way back in. Such a jail could be built by the inmates and would be very easy to run. Many of the inmates have skills that they can teach.
But you are going to but heads with the "gotta punish em' crowd"

BTW it has been shown pretty decisively that if you teach inmates yoga in daily classes, jails become much calmer places.

[steven lloyd]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/03/18/sk-lac-la-ronge-1003.html
A question of what to do with inmates . . . some folks in Saskatchewan have the right idea

Lest you get me wrong, have long been a proponent of setting up jails where inmates teach each other, & work co-operatively on projects such as this. You get to go to this kinder and gentler jail as long as you get along. If you mess up you get bounced back to the bars and concrete, until you earn your way back in. Such a jail could be built by the inmates and would be very easy to run. Many of the inmates have skills that they can teach. But you are going to but heads with the "gotta punish em' crowd"

BTW it has been shown pretty decisively that if you teach inmates yoga in daily classes, jails become much calmer places.

This is a great idea. Right now our prisons (at least provincially – I’m not as familiar with the federal system) teach some work skills and offer some educational upgrading but nothing that comes close to the legitimacy of training and hands-on work experience being offered by this project. What they’re getting now might teach some work ethic and provide some sense of purpose while incarcerated but it is not something that transfers so readily once back in the real world. This is giving inmates real credible training and experience that will transfer into real work opportunities upon their release (in addition to fact they are contributing to a great cause which helps to influence change in attitude). By providing this type of training and experience for inmates we are giving them a realistic chance to change their environments once they return to the community. Obviously risk factors such as substance abuse and negative peer associations will still be a concern, but these are factors addressed during community supervision and much easier to address when a client has a realistic chance of finding and maintaining employment.

The “punishment” factor is addressed through length of sentence of term of incarceration (and no matter what sort of rhetoric you aspire to, being incarcerated is not a holiday) but that’s a separate topic. What we in the community want to know (or at least should want to know) is whether or not the risk of recidivism has been reduced. Currently we know that the risk of recidivism increases with incarceration. It would be nice if we could change that – especially since the idea of jailing people for just about anything ( growing marijuana for cripes sake ? ) is regaining so much popularity.

p.s. Nibs, I’d like to see a link that shows “if you teach inmates yoga in daily classes, jails become much calmer places”. It’s not that I doubt it. In fact, quite the contrary. I’m just interested in seeing what you’ve found.

[Queen K]

I just googled "prisoners yoga" and came up with so much it was mindboogling.

Thanks Nibs.

[steven lloyd]

I just googled "prisoners yoga" and came up with so much it was mindboogling.

Thanks Nibs.

Yow! About 269,000 hits! There goes my Saturday afternoon.

[dandynick5]

BTW it has been shown pretty decisively that if you teach inmates yoga in daily classes, jails become much calmer places.

Not in the jail I work in. They go to the class, ogle the instructor and come back talking about "doing her".
And they don't act any calmer.

[dandynick5]

Having said that, any skill that they can learn in jail besides the usual negative skills are a good thing. It's interesting when doing their Case Management Plan that they talk about having a job with their "uncle's roofing business", but when I see them in the wood shop learning how to shingle, they haven't got a clue.
As for them learning skills that give them an unfair advantage over others, would we rather teach them a usable, employable skill that keeps them busy and gainfully employed or just keep paying for their jail time because they don't A: have an employable skill or B: gain some self-esteem?

[ILBT uh-huh]

I don't care if 1 in 10 comes out with training, or 1 in 20, and they compete for my job. Give them a chance to get out of the rut. That would be my tax dollars at work. Just giving someone an alternative to a life of crime.