Gordon Liddy, in his memoir, tells about a history class he taught in prison, and how the prisoners were good students and understood political intrigue and diplomacy and warfare by instinct, since they had grown up in similarly unforgiving and hard-edged environments. The idea of convicts being open to the life of the mind seems to be a common occurrence whenever it is offered to them. The idea of a monastic, ascetic learning environment is a good one, and actually a classic one. The life of a student was, once upon a time, supposed to be comparatively, poor, deprived, maybe cold, but mostly undistracted. Some people would probably choose that if it were offered.