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For the average net-surfer or e-mail user, Cyberspace may hold limitless potential, providing new sources of information, of opportunity, of entertainment. For the kids at Industry School, a correctional facility for boys outside Rochester, New York, it may provide even more: contact with the outside world, connection with a potentially intimidating academic setting, and perhaps even a sense of hope. |
| More than a hundred boys age thirteen to seventeen live at Industry. All have been sent there for offenses that would be felonies if committed by adults. |  |
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In 1995, six Industry boys visited the Rochester Institute of Technology, toured the campus, and set up e-mail accounts through the school. Since then they have carried on discussions via these e-mail accounts, on one occasion with RIT president Albert Simone, and on a regular basis with several RIT students. This year another group of six Industry kids came to visit and establish accounts. RIT has provided additional support in the form of technology, and as a result Industry, in the words of program-founder John Sturges, has jumped from having the sparse facilities of "one, sometimes working computer," to boasting "a well equipped computer lab." |
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The connection between Industry and RIT not only exposes the kids to the world of electronic communications; it has introduced them to an academic community and shown them that they more options than returning to the streets - even attending college. Only three percent of Industry's inmates will avoid jail as adults. The RIT connection hopes to see ten percent of Industry's boys go on to college. |