GENBRIT-L Archives
Archiver > GENBRIT > 1999-12 > 0944311642
From: Liz <>
Subject: Re: 1901 census: I don't want to alarm you but...
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 12:47:22 +0000
> Unless the plan is to force prisoners to do the data entry, I wouldn't think
> the totally useless ones, with no computer experience at all, would stick their
> hand up to do the job.
You raise an interesting point here. I know nothing about prisons in
Australia but something about the system in UK, and have been inside
many of them from Maximum Security in Durham to Ford Open Prison (in a
professional capacity but in one to one contact with inmates). One of
the most obvious recollections is that 'options' never came into it. The
removal of freedom is consistent. I certainly assume that inmates will
be assigned to this task.
As to computer competence - I believe that in one or two places computer
skills are being taught, but prisons which maintain a decent education
programme are not in the majority.
Most inmates come from the poorest level of society. Given that the most
recent statistics show that only 30+ % of the entire UK population own a
home computer then it is a fair guess that the majority of inmates did
not enter prison with computer skills already honed at home. Some of the
younger ones, if they were not persistent truants, may have had some
basics in school, which they have probably forgotten.
In the Open Prisons you will certainly find the white-collar fraudsters,
embezzlers and perjurers but the higher they fell from the more likely
it is that they still regard computers as hi-tech typewriters and were
in the habit of leaving such matters to their secretaries!
Of all possible uses for a computer, transcribing and data-entry are
probably the most boring possible tasks - *unless* you have a personal
interest in the subject , or are being paid a decent wage.
It is possible that the plan involves killing two birds with one stone
and making this task part of some Educational programme. It may be seen
as a cushy thing - until the boredom sets in. You and I would be excited
to get a glimpse of the 1901 Census but I can't imagine it having that
effect on the average guest of the prison service.
The
> convicts you sent out to us in past times turned out in many cases to be very
> good citizens indeed, (these are my ancestors after all), and I'd like to see
> the present ones given a bit of a go.
No offence to your ancestors but the circumstances are entirely
different. The transported convicts varied from those guilty of what we
would now consider petty property crimes to those who we would still
lock up and throw away the key. Those who survived hardship and made
something of opportunity were of both types and it is their descendants
who are the good citizens. It is only comparatively recently that people
have become open about their convict ancestry - it used to be the
classic 'family secret'.
Regards
Liz (Greenwich UK)
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