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Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

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Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#171

Post by maxerickson »

jacquesm wrote: post #167
maxerickson wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "measure", I meant a specific methodology that compares, say, the US and western Europe. Or just one country in western Europe. For example, if France had a study that broke results out similarly to https://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp Your implication is that France would simply lack an equivalent to the "Below Basic" group. I doubt this.

Most countries in Western Europe do not have 'home schooling', which is one big differentiating factor here, and those that do in general do not have numbers worth measuring. I'm sure France has an equivalent group, but I'm also sure that that group would be substantially smaller based on plenty of exposure to French citizens and American citizens. France has one of the best education systems in Europe and if you've…

Homeschooling is a purple trout. The one thing the rather small fraction of homeschoolers are certainly succeeding on is basic literacy. It's things like higher math and science literacy that would be an issue.

(People aren't taking their kids out of schools because they want them to stay uneducated...they are doing it because they disagree with what the school considers education. But they don't disagree about things like knowing the alphabet or how to read or whatever)

Anyway, my guess was that you were probably making forceful claims about anecdata and here we are.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#172

Post by quirkafleeg »

sametmax wrote: post #131
sametmax wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people here are taking themselves too seriously. A bit of humor and subculture could ease them on. You can be an expert/millionaire/famouswhatever and enjoy something else than endless debates where people are trying to be technically correct and pessimistic to the bones. Maybe it's just me ?

replying to me instead of metafunctor cause we reached the limit of nesting for comments It's ok, there is place for all of us on HN. As long as comments are not mostly filled by either behavior, we can all enjoy the benefit of the intelligent and knowledgeable HN community.

> replying to me instead of metafunctor cause we reached the limit of nesting for comments

I don't think there's a limit (at least not at this point), just that at a certain depth there's a delay before the reply link appears.

Alternative answer: maybe they should carry heavily nested comments on to another page, like they do on- ah, never mind.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#173

Post by mkelley82 »

jacquesm wrote: post #164
mkelley82 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a programmer with a felony (Possession of a controlled substance) I can tell you that by far the greatest hurdle is getting past a background check. I am in the process of finding a new job and I am currently awaiting a decision for the THIRD time on whether my felony will keep me from being hired. In the past month and a half I have been extended offers on two positions only to have them rescinded after they do t…

That's really ugly. Are you in the USA or Elsewhere? There was a thread linked a while back that may be of some relevance to you, let me dig it up. edit: here you go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6750043

Yes I'm in the USA, specifically Lexington, KY. Thanks for the link.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#174

Post by a_puppy »

dghf wrote: post #94
a_puppy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics [0], 52% of convicted felons in state prisons are there for a violent crime; 18% for property crimes; 18% for drug crimes; and 9% for public order crimes [1]. Violent crimes obviously harm someone. I would guess that property crimes and some of the public order crimes do as well---remember that we're talking about felony convictions, which means crimes that resulted in a…

Violent offenders tend to serve longer sentences than others (expected to be ~3 times longer on average than most other categories, according to the BJS article you reference), which is part of the reason they make up such a large part of the prison population at any given time. In terms of number of people sent to prison, they're less prominent: again from the BJS article, admissions to state prisons in 2009 with se…

In this context we're talking about P(person did something bad|person is currently in state prison), so the relevant statistics are the ones I cited. Your statistics would be relevant if we were talking about P(person did something bad|person has ever been to state prison).

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#175

Post by rl3 »

Tepix wrote: post #66
rl3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the Pi Zero is a far superior option. Vastly more computing power with only minimal additional pain. Bonus points if you hook it up to a battery and SSH into it during transit. Probably not the best idea to have something inside of you that occasionally catches fire, though. https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-zero/

The new Pi Zero W with Wifi and Bluetooth would be even better... https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-zero-w/

I incorrectly assumed the regular Pi Zero had wireless capability. Seems the W model would be essential.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#176

Post by kalamani »

dopamean wrote: post #151
antman wrote: post #65

They should be immediately released and then hired. Apparently the prison system needs their skills.

People can have redeeming qualities and still deserve to spend a lot of time in jail. Demonstrating that you could have done more with your life, after you've been convicted for killing someone, shouldn't excuse your crime.

Case in point: http://www.inquisitr.com/1069377/carl-herold-popular-reddit-...

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#177

Post by a_puppy »

8note wrote: post #166
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this comment, which has sources refuting your claim that "most" are non-violent drug offences: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14095968

does it? it makes two big assumptions that leaves it open: 1. only state prisons are considered 2. only people in prison for a year or more are considered there's nothing in the comment showing that shorter term inmates are a smaller population, nor that they aren't mostly non violent offenders, nor that federal prisons aren't mostly non violent offenders. In total, the comment just shows that there are violent and n…

I'm the author of the linked comment. I originally focused on state prisons because the article was about events in a state prison, so P(person did something bad|person is currently in state prison) was the relevant statistic. But let's repeat the analysis counting federal prisons and local jails as well.

In general, people with sentences longer than a year go to prison, and sentences shorter than a year go to jail. Roughly 57% of incarcerated people in the US are in state prisons, 9% in federal prisons, and 33% in jails [0]. In my earlier comment I noted that 52% of state prisoners are in for violent crimes, 18% for property crimes, and 18% for drug crimes. For jails, based on this source [1] I estimate 18% of the jail population is in for violent or weapons offenses; 3% for weapons; 30% for property crimes; and 31% for drug crimes. This source [2] suggests around 18% of federal prisoners are in for violent crimes; 17% for weapons/explosives/arson offenses; 11% for property crimes; 46% for drug crimes; and 8% for immigration reasons.

In my original comment, for state prisons, I counted violent crimes, property crimes, and 1/2 of other non-drug crimes to estimate that 76% of the prison population did something genuinely bad. For jails the number will be lower, both because there are fewer violent offenders and because the non-violent offenses tend to be less severe; if we count violent crimes, 1/2 of property crimes, and 1/2 of other non-drug crimes, we get 44%. For federal prisons, if we count violent crimes, property crimes, and weapons/explosives/arson offenses we get 46%. We can weight those three numbers by the sizes of the different groups to arrive at an overall figure of 61% for all incarcerated people in the US. (Of course, these numbers depend heavily on what you consider a "bad" crime.)

So of the entire incarcerated population of the US, about 1/2 to 2/3 are incarcerated for something genuinely bad. While you're correct to point out that this is lower than the 3/4 figure for state prisons, Broken_Hippo is still wrong to claim that "most" prisoners are in for things like non-violent drug offenses.

[0] https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus13.pdf

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Felony_S...

[2] https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#178

Post by Overtonwindow »

teekert wrote: post #31
codezero wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proud. The US prison system is oppressive garbage. Good for the inmates.

I read that prisons in the US can actually make profit and have share holders. Perhaps these hacking inmates can work for the CIA on the cheap.

There are private prison corporations that are incentivized by their shareholders and government contracts to keep as many prisoners inside as long as possible.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#179

Post by jacquesm »

maxerickson wrote: post #171
jacquesm wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries in Western Europe do not have 'home schooling', which is one big differentiating factor here, and those that do in general do not have numbers worth measuring. I'm sure France has an equivalent group, but I'm also sure that that group would be substantially smaller based on plenty of exposure to French citizens and American citizens. France has one of the best education systems in Europe and if you've…

Homeschooling is a purple trout. The one thing the rather small fraction of homeschoolers are certainly succeeding on is basic literacy. It's things like higher math and science literacy that would be an issue. (People aren't taking their kids out of schools because they want them to stay uneducated...they are doing it because they disagree with what the school considers education. But they don't disagree about thing…

> Anyway, my guess was that you were probably making forceful claims about anecdata and here we are.

Well, that anecdata is based on having spent a lot of time on both sides of the Atlantic and I really can't remember anybody ever in Europe that wasn't literate past the age of 10 and I've met enough people in the USA that were extremely nice but could barely write their own name that I don't feel the need to turn every comment about this subject into a paper complete with citations.

The US does not bother to report their literacy figures to the various global bodies so that makes comparing them a little bit harder than it normally would be but I'm fine to let me personal experience guide me in this, let's be happy this was about literacy and not about world history or geography.

You seem to get a lot of pleasure from these sniping sessions so consider me happy to oblige you as a target.

Re: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hid them in prison ceiling

#180

Post by omgwhat »

stephengillie wrote: post #38
walrus01 wrote: post #4

Here's hoping they didn't smuggle a full size ATX motherboard through the facility using the 'old fashioned' prison method. Or even a 3.5" SATA hard drive...

The prison transportation infrastructure vastly subsidizes Arduino Minis for this reason.

Best use case for an Intel Compute Stick yet.
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