Preparedness for when

RAS

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I guess the way to keep what you produce would be to deliberately grow crops that most folks wouldn't recognise as food, a swede looks very much like cattle fodder (mangolds) when it's field grown and still has its leaves attached, Parsnips also don't look like parsnips unless you know what the leaf is like and using old fashioned ways of storing those crops like clamping and root cellars would make them not so obvious as food sources to those intent on taking them. Grow things that aren't popular like beetroot and which will sustain you well because they are fairly calorific. You'd have to be inventive and artful to save what you could for yourselves.

They reckon that one reason that potatoes became popular in mainland Europe was that armies would seize grain crops which were gathered before the marching season and easy to transport.

If the haulms were removed, they did not realise that there were potatoes under the earth, and if they did would not put the effort into digging up something that was bulky, heavier and more difficult to transport. And for the most part leaving the potatoes in the ground was a decent way of storing them for use later in the season.

GreyQueen

RAS wrote: »

They reckon that one reason that potatoes became popular in mainland Europe was that armies would seize grain crops which were gathered before the marching season and easy to transport.

If the haulms were removed, they did not realise that there were potatoes under the earth, and if they did would not put the effort into digging up something that was bulky, heavier and more difficult to transport. And for the most part leaving the potatoes in the ground was a decent way of storing them for use later in the season.

This is a good point. Anything which can be grown other than en masse in fields can potentially be hidden among non-food plants. And potato haulms do die back several months before the first frosts in most parts of this hemisphere. One would want to have spuds lifted and stored in a frost-free place before getting into seriously-bitter weather, as they will turn into suppurating rotters if frosted.

jk0

I've mentioned my new gf who I've been seeing for about two months now.

GF's brother who is only 22 is serving many years in prison. She won't tell me what for or for how long, but it sounds like he still has many years to serve.

I get the impression he just idles his time away playing video games. I asked if there was any vocational training or lessons available for him, but she says not. He is not allowed access to the internet, so can't even learn online. This seems like such a waste of time, and makes any rehabilitation unlikely.

Has anyone any experience of relatives in prison? Are there any opportunities for learning, or anything I could suggest to gf?

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

I've mentioned my new gf who I've been seeing for about two months now.

GF's brother who is only 22 is serving many years in prison. She won't tell me what for or for how long, but it sounds like he still has many years to serve.

I get the impression he just idles his time away playing video games. I asked if there was any vocational training or lessons available for him, but she says not. He is not allowed access to the internet, so can't even learn online. This seems like such a waste of time, and makes any rehabilitation unlikely.

Has anyone any experience of relatives in prison? Are there any opportunities for learning, or anything I could suggest to gf?

I gather that many do open university courses.

TiredTrophy

Jk0 sadly access to prison education has suffered very significant cuts. Some prisons are better than others....classes are earned as a privilege as is access to the library.
She could ask for advice from the Prison Reform Trust.

GreyQueen

jk0, if you know the young man's name, a little googling will probably reveal a media report of the trial. I know of two young men in jail in this age group - the sex offender got three years and the murderer got life and won't be considered for parole until he is middle-aged. So, if he is serving a long sentence, I think he may have killed someone.

Nothing her brother did should be taken as having any bearing on the GF's character or that of their wider family. The aforementioned murderer is from a perfectly-respectable family who have been known to mine for a couple of generations. They are shocked, horrified, ashamed, everything you could imagine if your relative had done something like that.

fuddle

I would hope that rehabilitation would include vocational training. The OU is great for higher education training and have made inroads in an OU degree myself but it isn't really going to get me anywhere unless I make the decision to enter a salaried position. My obsticle is family. I would imagine that a reformed ex offender may need to enter the work place in a position where they can grow and gain confidence. I do hope that vocational options are part of rehabilitation.

Considering the Princess Trust are carrying out charity work in prisions I very much worry about provision anyway.

Frugalsod

fuddle wrote: »

I would hope that rehabilitation would include vocational training. The OU is great for higher education training and have made inroads in an OU degree myself but it isn't really going to get me anywhere unless I make the decision to enter a salaried position. My obsticle is family. I would imagine that a reformed ex offender may need to enter the work place in a position where they can grow and gain confidence. I do hope that vocational options are part of rehabilitation.

Considering the Princess Trust are carrying out charity work in prisions I very much worry about provision anyway.

Vocational work should be a very high priority as it can significantly reduce the chance of recidivism, and has a very high rate of return for society. Though when we have a government that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing I do not hold out much sense of hope for anything remotely looking like joined up thinking.

thriftwizard

I do have a relative serving a very long sentence. But as he already has a good degree and patently isn't in the least bit interested in the rest of us, I have no idea whether he has access to any further educational opportunities.

I used to be involved with a scheme that took old sewing machines out to Africa. The machines went up North to a prison where they trained "the lads" as sewing machine mechanics; on release, some of them also went out to Africa with the charity concerned to train ex-cons out there. Not only were they gaining a useful trade, they were also getting an opportunity to see a bit of the world, and meet people very much less privileged than we in the West. Sadly the scheme was halted, both by the crash of 2008 - they'd relied on cheap shipping-container space to get the machines out there at minimum cost, and shipping just ground to a halt - and by well-meaning busy-bodies insisting that somehow, training them up for a trade, rather than academic qualifications, was an infringement of their human rights.

But you try getting hold of a sewing machine repairer in a hurry...

Frugalsod

thriftwizard wrote: »

I used to be involved with a scheme that took old sewing machines out to Africa. The machines went up North to a prison where they trained "the lads" as sewing machine mechanics; on release, some of them also went out to Africa with the charity concerned to train ex-cons out there. Not only were they gaining a useful trade, they were also getting an opportunity to see a bit of the world, and meet people very much less privileged than we in the West. Sadly the scheme was halted, both by the crash of 2008 - they'd relied on cheap shipping-container space to get the machines out there at minimum cost, and shipping just ground to a halt - and by well-meaning busy-bodies insisting that somehow, training them up for a trade, rather than academic qualifications, was an infringement of their human rights.

What about the options of giving them a choice? Many are not academic and to basically eliminate a non academic option would also be bad. In many respects I think a vocational skill is better as it is unlikely to be outsourced to China.