Computer classes in prison offer hope for the future,
Sasiwimon Boonruang
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| MAIN PICTURE Reading the text to produce a talking book for the Daisy programme. INSET Some of the books they have turned into talking books. PHOTOS BY PATTANAPONG HIRUNARD |
Janya has created some 2,000 images on a computer, and today she is one of the top students in a class whose work has been offered commercially by the Central Women's Correctional Institution.
Having been in prison since 2003, and with no background in computers, today she spends five days a week, from 8am to 4pm, creating work in PhotoShop.
Janya has never studied computing before, and just had a little basic drawing skill, but this was enough to help her design pictures on a computer.
Like Janya, Paulette, an African prisoner, took the computing course offered at the prison for a year, and now she can produce animations.
"The officer asked me what kind of activities I would like do here. I had no idea then, but I chose the computer class and I've found that it was the right decision," Paulette said, while working at her PC.
Janya, Paulette and another 25 students in the class will be able to get jobs with their computer skills once they are released from jail.
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| Prisoners taking the basic Com 1 class that runs five days a week. |
Some of their classmates here are talking book readers - they work on producing digital talking books for the blind or people with bad eyesight.
The program is called Daisy (Digital Accessible Information System), and is co-ordinated by the Foundation of the Blind in Thailand. So far the talking books produced by the prisoners here have been delivered to the libraries of the Blind Foundation and the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec). Among the talking books they produce are text books for students and novels.
The room the 27 prisoners are working in is also used as a computer classroom for students pursuing por-vor-chor, por-vor-sor and bachelor's degrees from the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU).
Angkanung Lebnark, director of the Central Women's Correctional Institution said that the first group of nine prisoners had attained their bachelor's degrees here, and now a second group of some 20 students, are studying for degrees. "Some of them have been released before finishing the course, and they have continued their studies outside," she said.
Students here have to have a minimum of Mattayom 3 and take a basic computer course. Once they pass the course, they receive a certificate from the STOU.
According to Nectec deputy director Dr Chadamas Thuvasethakul, Nectec hired the prison to produce clip art in several categories including fruit, food and sport, to be used in a programme producing software for people with disabilities.
At the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts, male prisoners also have a chance to attend a computer course, and they too can pursue their por-wor-chor, por-wor-sor and bachelor's degrees in prison.
There are two computer courses offered to prisoners here - Com 1 is for basic computing, and the more advanced Com 2 for applied computing.
The basic course covers standard office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, while the applied computing course, for those who have passed the basic course, covers applications such as PhotoShop and Premier Pro, with which students can learn video editing.
Nung, a teaching assistant on the Com 1 course, has no experience in this field. He studied for a bachelor's degree in jail with STOU for two and a half years and then took the basic computer course.
"I felt I was doing something worthwhile when I was studying and it would have been a waste unless I did something more, so I applied to be a teaching assistant," said Nung, who is serving a 21 year sentence.
Some students in the class can get typing jobs here, and some make 500 to 1,000 baht per job and the money is transferred to their bank accounts.
The other teaching assistant on the Com 2 course works a five-day week, from 9 to 11:30 am, and has skills in the field as had he previously been on a computer graphics course. He said that a lot of people would like to join this class, but it could support only 25 students. "Some of them know nothing about computers, but now they can create a postcard for their families," the teaching assistant said, adding that one prisoner who had graduated now had a job in video editing.
Thanks to this IT project under the initiative of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, these prisoners, both Thais and foreigners, have the opportunity to learn something that they might never have had the chance to study before, and be equipped with computer skills. They not only have the chance to make money in prison, but also to find a job after they are released.
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