Solitary Confinement and Math
The year is 2011 a guy named Christopher Havens is convicted of murder and is incarcerated. In 2013, he writes a letter and it says
“To whom it may concern, I’m interested in finding more information on a subscription to Annals of Mathematics for personal use. I’m currently serving 25 years in the Washington Department of Correction and I’ve decided to use this time for self-betterment. I’m studying calculus and number theory, as numbers have become my mission. Can you please send me any information on your mathematical journal? Christopher Havens, #349034
PS. I am self-teaching myself and often get hung on problems for long periods of time. Is there anyone who I could correspond with, provided I send self-addressed stamped envelopes? There are no teachers here who can help me so I often spend hundreds on books that may or may not contain the help I need. Thank you.”
In 2020 he becomes a research paper author. Here’s the link to his paper: Linear fractional transformations and nonlinear leaping convergents of some continued fractions. He really did it! Bjeesus...
Early in 2016, he and his mentors later came up with the Prison Mathematics Project or PMP. It’s really amazing that math can be so transformative (haha pun intended. coffee cups and donuts are ironically what cops are always eating in films). It can either make a beast of a man or a man of a beast. Because he really went BEASTMODE on that NUMBER THEORY Y’ALL. His story is really so interesting. He just really did some math problems with pencil and paper in his prison cell then he’s self-teaching calculus? I almost failed college calculus! At some point they were even sending him math textbooks and math magazines which the prison didn’t allow. Eventually, they worked with the wardens and after passing letters back and forth they got a prison classroom, a library and eventually a whole ass math club of sorts. They even celebrated Pi Day! Honestly, this is one of the reasons I’m against death penalty. This man was a drug addict. Addict or no, with so many people lost to Duterte’s drug war, brilliant minds and great people have been lost to bullets. They could have been innocent and even if they were indeed addicts, they could have been mathematicians! There can be passionate people like this who were simply lost to factors like poverty and privilege that they didn’t even have control over in the first place. There are great minds and there’s talent everywhere if only everyone was given the chance... Currently, Christopher is trying to get an associate degree but apparently he already knows all the math they require I wonder if there are any local mentorship programs in the country. I’d really like for there to be something like this. I couldn’t teach in it but it sounds like it could make a big difference. Also, since we’re all stuck in isolation maybe it’s time to self-teach myself calculus again huhu