But like others in this post I would recommend CS unplugged.
And depending on how long he is in there for he might want to look at:
How to Design Programs - This is a good book, and although it's in Scheme, it teaches how to create appropriate levels of abstraction, which seems to be something many programmers struggle with.
Concepts, Techniques & Models of Computer Programs - Discusses the different paradigms and how they are inter-related.
Also something a bit more vocational like The Pragmatic Programmer or Clean Code / Clean Coder probably wouldn't hurt either.
If he can read all of those he will be very well prepared to do some actual programming when he gets out.
SICP not a bad shout either, although I've not got past the first chapter.
But like others in this post I would recommend CS unplugged.
And depending on how long he is in there for he might want to look at:
How to Design Programs - This is a good book, and although it's in Scheme, it teaches how to create appropriate levels of abstraction, which seems to be something many programmers struggle with.
Concepts, Techniques & Models of Computer Programs - Discusses the different paradigms and how they are inter-related.
Also something a bit more vocational like The Pragmatic Programmer or Clean Code / Clean Coder probably wouldn't hurt either.
If he can read all of those he will be very well prepared to do some actual programming when he gets out.
SICP not a bad shout either, although I've not got past the first chapter.