PRISON INMATES PASS THEIR TIME WITH PROGRAMMING

Аt Somers Correctional Institute, Connecticut's only maximum security prison, a group of prisoners is spending time writing programs. The inmates wrote the programs not just for their use but for some of the prison's operations. For example, the group wrote programs in dBASE to automate the prison's pharmacy, track the status of prisoners for prison administrators, and monitor job and pay schedules for the 1,400 inmates at Somers.

Some prisoners were in the computer field before entering prison. Others, however, learned computer programming through the prison's educational program. Many prisoners had not seen a personal computer before their incarceration but learned a lot in the six hours a day they spent in school. When administrators were confident that prisoners could write the programs, they began assigning projects to them, and prisoners have taken over many responsibilities associated with the prison's restricted information system.

The members of the group work six days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day. They believe they are gaining valuable experience that will help them when they are released from prison. In recognition of the group's effort, it has been designated as a tester of BASE IV. Members believe their work is important—so important that one member of the group turned down an opportunity to move to a medium security prison, because it did not have computers.

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