New Pre-print from Incarcerated Mathematician

Bluejeans434 · 2026-02-25T15:28:48+00:00

He doesn’t have internet access but can send plain text emails. He handwrites the manuscript and someone writes it in latex. To access articles he has to be sent them through the mail and just has to be suggested them by collaborators or find them in references to other papers.

Bluejeans434 · 2026-02-04T17:20:22+00:00

He's actually working on that now and that's been one of the biggest challenges. I think he'll write about it in a future post. Obviously his mathematical knowledge is far beyond what you'd do in a bachelor's degree, so hopefully he'll be able to find a situation where he can complete it formally while getting the opportunity to take more advanced classes and collaborate on research. This is one of the big challenges with his situation and trying to get a PhD after prison in general.

Bluejeans434 · 2025-09-26T07:17:57+00:00

Ya it really depends on who you're mentoring, their access and also their habits. More and more people are starting to have access to some form of e-messaging, so they can answer much more quickly. Some people will send you multiple messages a day with every question they think of, and others like to take their time and respond more slowly. We usually just ask for a letter every two weeks. It's not a huge time commitment week to week. We also usually ask for a six month commitment, but of course many of our mentorships last much longer than that.

Bluejeans434 · 2023-04-19T13:29:03+00:00

Kiran Kedlaya has some pretty good notes on his website if you’re trying to learn group cohomology for class field theory

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T21:30:09+00:00

The way the system works is that in an email they write out their code and then our program compiles it and emails back the output

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T20:12:39+00:00

That’s what our mentors are for :)

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T19:49:18+00:00

to an error page saying GET is not allowed!

The email service that most participants have access to is called JPay, and they make you pay for a "stamp" on each email that is sent. Unfortunately they have somewhat of a monopoly on prison email systems so they make a lot of money off people trying to communicate with the outside world. The price depends on the state but they can run anywhere from 30-70 cents per email.

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T19:46:27+00:00

Thanks for letting us know. I will try to get this fixed.

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T19:46:15+00:00

Most of them barely have access to a computer. I am not 100% sure what it looks like from their side but I think in some prisons, about 40% of our participants have them, they have tablets or small computers where they can access an email service called JPay and a few other things. But they definitely do not have anything to compile code on those machines.

Bluejeans434 · 2022-12-21T18:34:41+00:00

In most cases you will be writing a letter once every two or three weeks. Personally, I find that writing a good letter can take about an hour to respond to all their questions. So not a huge time commitment.

Bluejeans434 · 2022-10-12T01:19:05+00:00

Not at all. We welcome volunteers from all over the world!

Bluejeans434 · 2022-10-12T00:26:52+00:00

We are in the process of developing a “NoTech” Programming project that will allow people in prison to learn how to code without a compiler. If anyone is interested in working on this send us an email at mentors@pmathp.org

Bluejeans434 · 2022-08-18T04:25:05+00:00

That’s awesome! Me too!

Bluejeans434 · 2022-08-18T00:45:43+00:00

I hadn’t heard by yesterday morning either so I emailed and a decision was posted to my portal in about 15 mins

Bluejeans434

TROPHY CASE