Judge grants sex change for inmate

[Enoch]

[The Dharma Bum]

How can a GED possibly help?

No one is hired for a job because they have a GED, obviously it is something else.

I pointed out how the necessary control for the study wasn't in place. What more do you need to know? Correlation doesn't necessarily indicate causation so studies like this are pretty much pseudo-scientific anyway, on the order of polls.

[Enoch]

[Sandman]

A GED is better than nothing. Anyone who can't agree to that is just being difficult, but yeah, that's Dharma. But I'd say his overall point is basically right. The prison system isn't working even when they're handing out diplomas and HVAC certificates like hotcakes. Recidivism might noticeably go down, but not enough to call it a successfully rehabilitative system.

As far as the GED/diploma debate, I'll just add this. Nobody in my immediate family has a high school diploma (mom, dad, stepdad, older sister). Most of my circle of friends growing up dropped out of school around 9th grade. I stuck around and got a diploma, just barely. It changed the course of my life. Point blank. So I hate when people say a diploma is "worthless". It's an elitist, hyperbolic thing to say, and it makes you sound like a sheltered, condescending dickhole. I've managed to build a decent life around one (admittedly also with a lot of help from the jobs program they call the modern military, but that also required a diploma so it all evens out). Sure, a diploma isn't what it once was, but it's also not the meaningless piece of paper people claim it is. It's a stepping stone to a working class career or a college degree, which is another stepping stone to a career. So is a felon going to be better off with a GED than without one coming back outside the walls? The question answers itself. Better off isn't perfect, but it's still better off and that's not petty shit to some people.