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Google Engineer bails out student in jail

neil.fraser.name

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Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#101

Post by Anechoic »

JonnieCache wrote: post #86
zeemonkee wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a pretty serious opportunity, if you get to build/run prisons for a living. Given how corrupt US politics is, I'm sure the two are connected.

And a massive cash cow if you're selling the products of the cheap labour that goes on in US prisons. http://www.cio.com/article/595304/Prison_Labor_Outsourcing_s... http://newworkerfeatures.blogspot.com/2010/02/us-prison-labo... Paying someone who you have in complete physical bondage under $1 an hour is slave labour as far as I'm concerned, even if it is nominally voluntary. At best its unconscionably exploitative.…

EDIT: Here's another fun stat: america has more black people in prison than in college: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ americas/2223709.stm

This claim is a little misleading - the absolute numbers are true (or close enough depending on your source) but it compares blacks in all age groups in jail with blacks going to college. If you limit the comparison to college-aged blacks, there are far more blacks in college then prison.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#103

Post by defen »

neilk wrote: post #98
philwelch wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be accusing me of racism rather than offering a counterargument. Did I misread you? Cultural homogeneity and its effects on crime transcend race. European immigration to the US during the 19th and 20th centuries were linked to crime as well. Usually, the dominant cultures in a heterogenous society will exclude and oppress minority populations, which leads to poverty and desperation. The problem really is…

That link seems suspect to me. India is rife with crime. Daily life , even for rich people, involves lots of activities that would be crimes in a Western country, particularly official corruption. Anyway, you spoke in terms of "criminality in some American cultures", which sounds like a euphemism, since you neglected to name them. Although you followed it up with your hetereogenity thesis I (like many readers) was al…

> White Americans, whether liberal or conservative, take it as a given that there's always some part of the city dominated by blacks where gunfire is heard at night and the cops are afraid to go.

This place exists in just about every major American city. Not sure about gunfire every night, but places where police presence is minimal and you just don't go there, unless you live there.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#105

Post by JonnieCache »

Anechoic wrote: post #101
JonnieCache wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a massive cash cow if you're selling the products of the cheap labour that goes on in US prisons. http://www.cio.com/article/595304/Prison_Labor_Outsourcing_s... http://newworkerfeatures.blogspot.com/2010/02/us-prison-labo... Paying someone who you have in complete physical bondage under $1 an hour is slave labour as far as I'm concerned, even if it is nominally voluntary. At best its unconscionably exploitative.…

EDIT: Here's another fun stat: america has more black people in prison than in college: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ americas/2223709.stm This claim is a little misleading - the absolute numbers are true (or close enough depending on your source) but it compares blacks in all age groups in jail with blacks going to college. If you limit the comparison to college-aged blacks, there are far more blacks in college…

A good point. It is still not exactly encouraging that these two figures should be anywhere near each other, considering it is not only young people that should be going to college.

EDIT: I wonder what would happen if you injected the racial makeup of the prison/university management and staff into the calculations.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#106

Post by joelmichael »

philwelch wrote: post #45
mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

And yet, somehow, over the last 20 years the crime rate in the US has dropped tremendously. Every single one of those prisoners was convicted of some crime or another by a comparatively just court system. The underlying problem--criminality in some American cultures--is difficult and rather unique to the United States. Other rich countries are more culturally homogenous and hence suffer less criminality, though that'…

You got downvoted because people disagreed with you, not because you didn't elegantly state a perfectly valid perspective.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#107

Post by Alex3917 »

zeemonkee wrote: post #34
mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

Or a pretty serious opportunity, if you get to build/run prisons for a living. Given how corrupt US politics is, I'm sure the two are connected.

"Given how corrupt US politics is, I'm sure the two are connected."

Prisons get to extend the sentences of inmates if they test positive for drugs while in prison. Guess whether it's public or private prisons where inmates are on average 8 times more likely to test positive for drug use.

http://www.bop.gov/news/research_projects/published_reports/...

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#108

Post by Raphael »

JimmyL wrote: post #89
irons wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$155,000, according to the linked story. Fraser paid $50,000, which he'll get back when the kid makes his court dates. The alternative was paying 10% and not getting it back, which I didn't know was standard policy. (Most of what I know about bail bonds comes from Jackie Brown.)

Interestingly, there are some district courts/jurisdictions that are turning against bail bondsmen for being exploitative. Some will try and outright ban them from operating (either by explicit local ordinance, or by denying them the agreements on standing credit and prisoner transfer that they need to operate), but more interesting are the courts that try and eliminate them via competition. As of now, bail bondsmen…

That sounds like you just lowered the bail, in which case the defendant would probably just pay $1K for someone to borrow the $10K. How can credit and cash be distinguished anyway?

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#109

Post by vaksel »

ugh wrote: post #87
JonnieCache wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a massive cash cow if you're selling the products of the cheap labour that goes on in US prisons. http://www.cio.com/article/595304/Prison_Labor_Outsourcing_s... http://newworkerfeatures.blogspot.com/2010/02/us-prison-labo... Paying someone who you have in complete physical bondage under $1 an hour is slave labour as far as I'm concerned, even if it is nominally voluntary. At best its unconscionably exploitative.…

It is slave labor. The US constitution bans slavery except for prisoners. Here is the text of the Thirteenth Amendment, Section 1: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” – edit: To add a bit more substance, here is an article about the recent Georgi…

to me that means that labor has to be ordered by the judge as part of the punishment

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#110

Post by matwood »

There are just so many WTF moments in this story.

1) Why are police involved with a kid smoking at school? Kids caught smoking when I was in HS got after school detention.

2) There seems to be zero respect for the police officer. At what point did kids quit respecting police and did the police lose that respect?

3) The DA actually bringing charges against someone who just looks to have been idly filming the event. Where are charges against the more rowdy people?

4) The judge letting this case go forward.

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