
Topics in Core Mathematics at Graterford Prison - tomahunt
http://blogs.ams.org/phdplus/2017/05/18/topics-in-core-mathematics-at-graterford-prison/
======
mrkgnao
> _Christopher is an inmate in a high-security federal prison not far from
> Atlanta. He’s been in trouble with the law since he was 14. He didn’t finish
> high school, had an addiction to hard drugs, and at age 21, his involvement
> in a string of armed robberies landed him in prison with a 32-year
> sentence._

> _Right now, you’ve probably formed a mental image of who Christopher is, and
> you might be wondering why I’m opening my speech with his story. When you
> think about who does mathematics–both who is capable of doing mathematics
> and who wants to do mathematics–would you think of Christopher?_

Francis Su's retiring address as the President of the Mathematical Association
of America is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtDvc1SWm8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtDvc1SWm8)

There's a transcript on his blog, too:

[https://mathyawp.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/mathematics-for-
hu...](https://mathyawp.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/mathematics-for-human-
flourishing/)

~~~
thearn4
That's a great read, thanks for linking it.

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cubano
I am all for knowledge for knowledge's sake, and these guys are doing an
_amazing_ job not only teaching these convicts about important, perhaps even
life-changing, math concepts, and by donating their ever-shrinking and
increasingly valuable time, something that is in very limited supply in todays
age.

But, as I am currently finding out in my life, the odds are _very slim to
none_ that life post-prison is going to change for these convicts as they try
to rejoin society, as the job markets will be almost totally closed off to
them as they seem to be for me.

Even with all this "enlightened" rhetoric here on HN about second-chances and
"understanding the struggle", _not one person here has contacted me about
remote work_ even though I have make it very clear how desperate my situation
is [0]. Please don't misunderstand...I don't really expect anyone to have much
sympathy for my situation, but I know plenty of people here are currently
looking for IT workers and my posting clearly show I am capable of doing high-
quality LAMP work, so I think it's at least notable to discuss my experience.

It's all well and good to provide education and such to people in seek it, and
its a great feel-good-story with wonderful social signaling for all you
comfortable techies, but the reality is that _food and shelter costs real
money_ , and all the education in the world isn't going to help these ex-cons
find work, build self-esteem and rejoin society if the common prejudices
continue to work against them at every turn.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017760](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017760)

~~~
lo_stronzo
Although, I cannot comment personally on what employment chances are after
serving in prison, I can state with confidence that having a single, felony
drug conviction [0] doesn't automatically result in a denial of employment all
of the time.

The largest, single reason which I could see as an automatic rejection for
chances of employment is the prior criminal history [1]. It's much easier to
explain (and look past) a single offense, versus multiple offenses -
especially if they're all in the same vein.

My most recent major job search a few years ago (Texas and Florida, ~8 years
post-conviction) was basically 50/50, in terms of offers of employment after
criminal history was disclosed. The irony is that the majority of potential
employers who asked for details were the ones that sent the job offers.

I know that no two situations are exactly the same (I'll provide details if
you want them), but hopefully this is proof that there is light at the end of
the tunnel.

[0] Conspiracy to deliver heroin (4-14 grams) & and V.O.P. (dirty urine). [1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017760](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14017760)

~~~
cubano
This is perhaps the most amazingly honest reply I've ever had here on HN.

Thank you brother for having the courage to be honest and for inspiration.

------
gibsjose
It is quite fascinating to imagine inmates passing their handwritten Vigenère
encrypted secrets using Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

~~~
wyager
As I recall, Neil Stephenson commissioned Bruce Schneier to come up with a
reasonably secure cryptosystem that could be computed using a deck of cards,
so that a character in Cryptonomicon could do something similar while
imprisoned.

~~~
grogenaut
[https://www.schneier.com/academic/solitaire/](https://www.schneier.com/academic/solitaire/)

~~~
userbinator
The two indices and the permutation operations are very reminiscent of RC4.

------
agumonkey
Reminds me of high school dropout buddies who couldn't math at all, yet would
compute weed ratios, prices in fake currencies on the fly while bantering.
Irony.

~~~
posterboy
That's 4th grade level math ...

~~~
swift
Speaking as someone with a graduate-level education in mathematics, I
definitely can't make change as quickly as an experienced cashier, and I'm
sure a drug dealer would be able to judge the profit or loss expected from a
series of transactions more quickly than I would. Some respect for those
skills is warranted, I think, even if they just boil down to being fast at
arithmetic.

~~~
agumonkey
parent is right, its not really impressive, but these guys didn't know the
maths they were doing, they didn't even learn or try, it was just natural to
devise rules, ratios, conversion because they just wanted it was inspired by a
strong desire. I'm sure some dealers have nice economic skills.

~~~
posterboy
The fallacy is in equating criminal activity with stupidity. This fallacy
might stem from assuming that the risk was immeasurable and the profit
therefore potentially negligible (bayesian inference).

Arithmetically inclined individuals being advantaged as sellers leads to
survivorship bias. It's not actually surprising that a salesman can do that.
It's surprising that drug sales can score huge gains and that some people see
hardly any alternative to make a living even if small time dealers hardly make
a profit because of oversupply in competition, much less if they are addicted.

------
bglazer
[http://blogs.ams.org/phdplus/files/2017/05/Wali-and-
Brandon....](http://blogs.ams.org/phdplus/files/2017/05/Wali-and-Brandon.jpg)

This poster presentation of non-Euclidean geometry is really one of the best
demonstrations that I've ever seen of these ideas. The precision and clarity
of the hand drawn figures is lovely.

