The Crucible: Learning How to Code in Prison
My path to becoming a full-stack web developer was different than most. My training came from The Last Mile (TLM), a program that teaches incarcerated people how to build full-stack web applications, thus preparing them for successful workforce reentry. The challenges of learning how to code while in prison has produced some great programmers, and in this article we’re going to explore why.
Learning how to code is, for some, a Sisyphean task. It requires constant learning and adaptation. It takes logic, intuition, and the willpower to keep going when things seem impossible. Ironically, these are some of the same traits required to successfully navigate prison. People who have rehabilitated themselves over long years of incarceration often possess ingenuity, the ability to focus, and an indomitable will. These traits alone would allow them to succeed in a technical career, but there’s even more to the story.
People who learn how to code often leverage the full power of the internet to do so. Yet, in a prison environment, this is not an option. Many developers would be utterly lost without tools such as Google, Stack Overflow, MDN, FreeCodeCamp, YouTube, Udemy, or other technical documentation or tutorials. They cannot even imagine working without them. However, in the TLM program, this is exactly what we did.
If this weren’t difficult enough, some of the students entering the program have never used a computer before. A few have never even turned a computer on and have no idea how to use a mouse. Some of them, like myself, were locked up before the age of the internet and have no idea how it even works. The height of technology when I was incarcerated was the pager. Cell phones existed, but they were roughly the size of bricks. Several of the men in my cohort were in the same boat, yet they turned out to be extraordinary coders.
Prisons, by their very nature, are highly restrictive places. Giving the people inside access to the internet is inconceivable under most circumstances. So how is it possible to learn web development when you can’t use the internet? It’s quite a conundrum, I agree. The TLM students use a simulated web environment — a small sandbox, if you will. This playground contains all the tools necessary for development and testing, yet it lacks the far-reaching capability and instant solutions provided by the open internet. Answers to difficult problems can be found only within the curriculum, remote instruction (where instructors call in for one hour, once a week on average, to support the students as they tackle new challenges), textbooks (yes, real books), and tools available within the secured environment. All of the content students have access to is housed on an internally-hosted learning management system, which incorporates project-based learning principles to cement students’ understanding of the material.
In addition to the technological limitations, life in prison is hard. Living under the constant threat of spontaneous violence, shakedowns, lockdowns, and other elements of day-to-day incarceration make learning something as difficult as coding even harder. The prison I was confined to didn’t have air conditioning. The summers consisted of living in humid, 90+ degree dormitories with 127 other men. It’s difficult to study when your arms are sticking to every page you touch and the air becomes steadily harder to breathe. Yet, this is what we had to do in order to succeed.
So, in spite of all the challenges, how is it that the TLM program produces so many good programmers? How do the students succeed while living in such a harsh and oppressive environment? It should be noted here that not all of the graduates go on to pursue careers in coding. Some of them become successful in other industries. TLM’s goal is to prepare its students for successful reentry by giving them the tools necessary to do so. This takes place, primarily, through business and technology training. By helping people learn a difficult subject under less-than-ideal circumstances, TLM fosters students’ belief in themselves and in doing so demonstrates that they, as an organization, care. In prison, there’s no stronger motivator than knowing someone cares about you and wants you to succeed. Even better is the moment you realize your own potential and self-worth.
Many people in prison realize that life will be hard upon their release. There are many challenges to be faced, and those challenges exponentially increase the longer someone is incarcerated. By giving the students something to focus on, and by giving them tools they can use upon their release, you increase the likelihood of their successful reentry. It makes them work all the harder to learn how to utilize those tools. It gives them a purpose; a way out of the cycle of incarceration, and a way to form new, constructive habits. This, I believe, is the defining factor that has allowed TLM to create so many successful returned citizens, myself included.
There is a famous quote by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu:
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
The Last Mile taught us how to fish, so now we can feed ourselves for a lifetime. There is no greater measure of success.
