How did you end up doing this work? Did you deliberately seek it out? What are teachers, probation officers and so on (everyone who is not a guard) like? What drives them?
How did you end up doing this work? Did you deliberately seek it out?
I went to a French engineering school which is also a military school. During the first year (which corresponds to junior year in US undergrad), each student typically spends around six months in an armed forces regiment after basic training.
Students get some amount of choice of where to spend these six months among a list of options, and there are also some opportunities outside of the military: these include working as a teaching assistant in some high schools, working for some charitable organizations, and working as a teacher in prison.
When the time came for me to choose, I had an injured shoulder, was generally physically weak, and did not have much of a “soldier mindset” (ha). So I chose the option that seemed most interesting among the nonmilitary ones: teaching in prison. Every year around five students in a class of about 500 do the same.
What are teachers, probation officers and so on (everyone who is not a guard) like? What drives them?
Overall, I thought the teachers were fairly similar to normal public school teachers—in fact, some of them worked part-time at a normal high school. In the prison I worked at, they seemed maybe more dedicated and open-minded than normal public school teachers, but I don’t remember them super well.
I don’t really remember my conversations with probation officers. One thing that struck me was that in my prison, maybe 90% of them were women. If I remember correctly, most were in their thirties.
Very interesting read, thank you!
How did you end up doing this work? Did you deliberately seek it out? What are teachers, probation officers and so on (everyone who is not a guard) like? What drives them?
I went to a French engineering school which is also a military school. During the first year (which corresponds to junior year in US undergrad), each student typically spends around six months in an armed forces regiment after basic training.
Students get some amount of choice of where to spend these six months among a list of options, and there are also some opportunities outside of the military: these include working as a teaching assistant in some high schools, working for some charitable organizations, and working as a teacher in prison.
When the time came for me to choose, I had an injured shoulder, was generally physically weak, and did not have much of a “soldier mindset” (ha). So I chose the option that seemed most interesting among the nonmilitary ones: teaching in prison. Every year around five students in a class of about 500 do the same.
Overall, I thought the teachers were fairly similar to normal public school teachers—in fact, some of them worked part-time at a normal high school. In the prison I worked at, they seemed maybe more dedicated and open-minded than normal public school teachers, but I don’t remember them super well.
I don’t really remember my conversations with probation officers. One thing that struck me was that in my prison, maybe 90% of them were women. If I remember correctly, most were in their thirties.