What it's like learning to program in prison

<p>Here is the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ht5krp/prisons_are_banning_books_that_teach_prisoners/fyfd0w5/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3">Reddit comment</a> that inspired us to reach out to Garry. </p><p>This is the Vice <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwnkj3/prisons-are-banning-books-that-teach-prisoners-how-to-code?utm_source=reddit.com">news article</a> that started the thread.  As you can see, the ban has affected a lot of books that would seem to have little bearing on cybersecurity. "Rejected books that are geared towards hacking, such as Justin Seitz’s <i>Black Hat Python,</i> may represent a clearer threat to the Department of Corrections, which fears that prisoners could use those tools to compromise their systems. But how did books such as <i>Windows 10 for Dummies</i>, <i>Microsoft Excel 2016 for Dummies,</i> and <i>Google Adsense for Dummies</i> (marked as posing "clear and present danger"), fail the prison’s security test?"</p><p>If you want to read about programs helping prisoners learn to code, check out <a href="https://bpi.bard.edu/changing-the-face-of-tech/">this story</a> on the Bard Prison Initiative. </p><p>We also did a <a href="https://the-stack-overflow-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/from-prison-to-programming-the-code-collective-sgtq7v6K">podcast episode</a> back in January of this year that focused on The Code Cooperative, an organization dedicated to teaching software skills to formerly incarcerated individuals. </p><p> </p><p> </p>