Giving inmates skills that they need to succeed in society after release from a correctional facility is a good thing - right?  In the eyes of some corrections practitioners, the answer may actually depend on what those skills are. 

As technology evolves and an ex-offender's employability becomes increasingly dependent on his ability to use a computer, educational efforts behind bars have adapted to include various types of computer courses.  But, when those classes are teaching inmates how to use sophisticated software or how to take computers apart and rebuild them, the rehabilitative benefit to the inmates may be outweighed by an increased risk to correctional institutions and the public.

"A computer can be as lethal today as a handgun [and] maybe, in many cases, much more lethal," said Scott McPherson, Chief Information Officer for the Florida Department of Corrections.  "A computer in the wrong hands can become a weapon of mass disruption."

McPherson, who recently gave a presentation on this topic at the Corrections Technology Association conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., believes that all corrections agencies should be cognizant of the potential implications of the kind of education they are providing to their inmates.

"I think every correctional entity needs to review what they're teaching inmates to try and determine if we are simply breeding a generation of future computer criminals," McPherson said.  "The skills that we are teaching some of these people, if put in the wrong hands, can be very bad."

But some people working in the criminal justice arena argue that computer education is an important part of preparing inmates' for their reentry into society.
 
A Necessary Education

"One of the problems is that, particularly [with] inmates who are in prison for a [long] period of time, [they] come out of prison and they have no skills and no exposure to the modern world so, not only do they have a criminal conviction, which can't possibly help, but they're starting from a rear position in terms of being able to get a decent job," said Peter Siegel, an attorney for the Florida Justice Institute, a Miami-based non-profit legal organization.

Computer education for inmates is an important part of their rehabilitation, said Siegel, who does not believe that teaching offenders about technology puts correctional facilities or society at risk.

"That hardly seems like the reason why you wouldn't want to teach them current day skills so that when they get out of prison maybe they get a decent job and maybe they don't come back," Siegel said.

McPherson agrees with Siegel to some extent and acknowledges that inmates do need some type of computer education while they are incarcerated in order to sustain themselves in the community.

"It's absolutely critical that these people learn how to operate a computer, how to turn the computer on, how to do word processing, how to write a spreadsheet, how to update a spreadsheet [and] how to access databases," McPherson said.  "[But] I think that's where you draw the line."

Risky Business

According to McPherson, it's not appropriate to provide inmates with instruction in complex software like Linux and Oracle, which could give them the skill-base they need to hack into systems.   

"We have no business teaching them any skill that they could turn around and use to exploit their agency or the city at large when they get out," he said.

With inmates learning how use complex software and how to rebuild computers as part of their vocational training, agencies are taking a risk, McPherson said.

"You have a situation where if these inmates are really sharp and they know what they're doing and they've been, unfortunately, trained well, you can see the potential for identity theft rings from within penitentiaries under the auspices of the training that they received," McPherson said.  "That doesn't take advanced computer training, it just takes a good, functioning knowledge of how computers work."

With offenders being trained in how to refurbish old computers, the general public could become particularly vulnerable to inmates, McPherson noted.  Often times, the hard drives of the computers that have been donated to be rebuilt have not been completely destroyed and still contain information, he said.

"What we are finding is, [with] those machines that are coming in, more often than not, the hard drives were not given a full destructive format," McPherson said.  "Some of those computers have come from the private sector - entities such as banks or insurance companies or doctors office or hospitals - and they may have had sensitive information on them."

According to McPherson, when these computers are turned over to inmates for reconstruction, the offenders may then gain access to information like social security numbers, personal health information or bank account numbers, which can put people at risk for being victimized at the hands of offenders.

Talking About Technology

One way to combat this threat is to increase the dialogue between corrections agencies' information technology and education departments, said McPhereson, noting that Florida's DOC has already taken a step in that direction.

"I really think there needs to be a dialogue and I want to underscore a great sense of urgency on this as to what kind of computer education is considered appropriate to inmates," McPherson said.  "I think that the CIO or CTO should have a say and even veto power over the curriculum that is being taught.  They need to be able to look at the curriculum and say 'We do not want inmates learning that.'"

According to McPherson, the technology curriculums being created by the education wings of corrections departments may undermine the security of the institutions and the safety of the public.  In some cases, inmates may even be learning how to hack into the systems of the facilities where they are incarcerated, he added.

"We're going to see hacking from within institutions.  We're going to see attempts to change sentences.  We're going to see information sold to the highest bidder," McPherson said.  "You don't have to be a Hollywood script writer to conjure up almost an endless series of things that they would be [able] to do," he added.  "They'd have the keys to the kingdom."

Aside from developing skills that would enable them to hack into correctional facilities' computers, inmates receiving an advanced computer education may surpass some agencies' information technology staff in education level, according to McPherson.

"The reality is in some situations, inmates might be getting a better computer education than the IT workers," McPherson said.  "The danger exists that these inmates may become more proficient than the IT workers of the agencies that are charged with protecting the safety of the public."

Stepping Up Security

To ensure that this doesn't happen in Florida and to educate staff about the dangers that exist in allowing inmates' to use certain technologies, the state DOC has stepped up its training for officers.

"The first thing that we're getting ready to do is have every member of the agency go through a very detailed security training curriculum so they understand what the stakes are and they understand what the cause and effect can be if they have a lapse in judgment - what it can do to them and the department and the taxpayers," McPherson said. 

Starting in July, staff will be required to pass an online training course; employees who fail the course more than twice will lose their computer privileges indefinitely.

In addition to administering technology training to staff, the DOC will be reworking some of its policies to preserve the security of the agency's computer systems.

"We're also in the process of changing our personnel rules to make it a much more egregious offense to give away passwords or to allow unauthorized people to use workstations," McPherson said.

All of these added measures are essential to keeping correctional facilities and the public safe, he added. 

"What [corrections agencies] are doing and the information we have [are] just too valuable.  We can't take chances with it," McPherson said.  "As we become more and more reliant on technology, it becomes more and more important for us to safeguard that technology."

Resources:

To contact Scott McPherson, call (850) 410-4740

To contact Peter Siegel, call (305) 358-2081