The Last Mile is a program for prisoners at the San Quentin State Prison, California (in the United States) launched by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, that works with prisoners to help them build relevant skills in technology and other areas so that they can more easily transition to productive employment once they are out of prison. Participation in the program is restricted to prisoners who have worked hard to improve themselves intellectually and emotionally.
Contents
History
The program was founded in 2010 by Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti. and is a collaboration between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Transmedia Capital.
Components
The program involves discussions with prisoners about various aspects of technology and digital communication, and prisoners are able to blog as well as participate on Twitter and Quora. However, participants do not have direct online access, and their handwritten or typed answers are uploaded by program volunteers. Inmates have reported on Quora that the program is highly beneficial to them, and their Quora answers in particular have received attention in a lot of media coverage of the program. Prisoners who go through the program have a final project that culminates in a five-minute presentation on a Demo Day.
In 2014 The Last Mile launched Code.7370 in San Quentin State Prison, the first fully inclusive computer programming curriculum available in a US prison. The students in Code.7370 learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python. The program curriculum is expanding within California in 2015, initially in Ironwood State Prison.
Media coverage
The program has been covered in Reuters, The Atlantic, BBC News, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, and other newspapers and magazines.
The program was also discussed by Neil Cavuto in his TV show for the Fox Business Network.