Admitted burglar learning to be a better man in prison

[wordlearn0001]

Hi, Everybody. I'm a middle school student.
I have a question.

I actually saw this headline on the web[Pinterest] but I don't have a detail story.

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Admitted burglar learning to be a better man in prison.
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I think this headline is an odd headline. "Admitted burglar" is not an prison inmate, right? So how can he learn something in prison?

Anyway... what does this headline means?


1. He is now in prison and he is working hard to be a better person, you know, learning skills, learning to read and write in prison...

2. He is not in prison, but sooner or later, he will go to prison, he will learn something in prison.


Thank you everybody.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

Hello Wordlearn,

The "admitted burglar" must be a prison inmate. And he must be 'working hard to be a better person', but he may well know how to read and write, though he may not yet be very kind or forgiving, or have yet learnt to respect other people's right to their property.

I suspect that this burglar is not 'admitted' in the sense that one admits people to a prison, but rather that he admits his guilt for the burglary. The adjective reads very strangely, certainly. If it means what I think it means, it should rather be 'admitting'.

 

[Cagey]

We have only the headline, so we can't be sure.

But I understand it to mean that someone who admitted he is a burglar is in prison, and is learning to be a better person, as you describe in your sentence #1.

It is a headline, so they try to use as few words as possible to get the idea across. They say that he is learning to be a better man in prison, so we understand that he is in prison without their having to use more words to say so. They call him an 'admitted burglar' so that we know that he man himself admits he is a burglar. Some people in prison may say they are not guilty of the crime they were convicted of and some people in prison may really be innocent, but this man says he has been a burglar.

This is how I understand the headline. Without seeing the whole story, I can't be sure it is correct.

Cross-posted.

 

[wordlearn0001]

thank you reply!!!