This August, Maine Public Radio released a two-part series on unique opportunities available to people incarcerated in Maine.

Part 1: Cracking the code: How technology and education are changing life in Maine prisons
For nearly 20 years, incarcerated individuals in Maine have been taking college classes for credit. Hundreds have graduated with associate, baccalaureate and even advanced degrees. It all started with an endowment from philanthropist Doris Buffet and her Sunshine Lady Foundation. Additional grants paved the way for the supervised use of laptops. And Maine is now the first state to offer remote work from prison. Forty-five prisoners have been hired by outside companies to do remote jobs from their cells. A few are earning more than corrections officers.

Part 2: In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs and other states are taking notice
People who are incarcerated are paid notoriously low wages for kitchen, laundry work and maintenance. But the expanded use of laptops is creating other opportunities. Preston Thorpe is only 32, but he says he's already landed his dream job as a senior software engineer and bought a modest house with his six-figure salary. It was all accomplished by putting in long days from his cell at the Mountain View Correctional Center in Charleston.