Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone could be a potential murderer. I had a coworker who committed murder-suicide, and I nobody saw it coming. In the same vein, anyone could be rehabilitated.
> anyone could be rehabilitated Many systems disagree with this and have sentencing systems which allow a true life sentence. Sometimes this is due to a mental health aspect.
My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
461–470 of 670 posts
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#462There are a lot of people saying they're in favor of this type of thing. And for non-violent offenses I'd probably also be on board. But this person committed a "serious, violent crime" that sent them to prison for 13 years. Are you comfortable sitting next to someone who is capable of a "serious, violent crime"? Are there certain crimes that cross the line for you? Would you expect your employer to inform you of the…
>"But this person committed a "serious, violent crime" that sent them to prison for 13 years. Are you comfortable sitting next to someone who is capable of a "serious, violent crime"? Are there certain crimes that cross the line for you? Would you expect your employer to inform you of their record?" I would not feel comfortable sitting next to someone who was substantially more capable of committing a serious, violen…
I work with a guy who did some time, but I'm not sure what for. Probably drug-related, if I had to guess, but I've never asked. He's a model employee, as long as you include a snarky wit in your model. And I feel perfectly comfortable around him.
There are people around who DO creep me out, but that's not even slightly correlated, in my little sample, with the people who've been to prison.
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would think any crime inflicting bodily harm is relevant, as long as you work near people with bodies.
What you said implies that any person that has committed a violent crime remains a danger to other people, forever - and should also be punished, forever. This is what the American justice system is like. In a saner world, (only) people who are a danger to others would be separated from the society, and being set free would be and indication that you are no longer a danger. In the US, being released from prison signa…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would think any crime inflicting bodily harm is relevant, as long as you work near people with bodies.
What you said implies that any person that has committed a violent crime remains a danger to other people, forever - and should also be punished, forever. This is what the American justice system is like. In a saner world, (only) people who are a danger to others would be separated from the society, and being set free would be and indication that you are no longer a danger. In the US, being released from prison signa…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#465Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many Americans talk about "freedom" but their definition is largely narrow and specific to political issues they feel strongly about. The same people who talk about "small government" simultaneously use the federal government to bludgeon states into submissions on issues such as legalized marijuana. It's usually something that's used to justify a specific political position and not an overall sentiment of allowing ac…
There is no such thing as actual freedom. You exercising your "freedom" almost always means imposing upon someone else's. In your example wouldn't someone having to provide a service to a LGBTQ person even though it is against their religious beliefs be a violation of their freedom of religion just as much as refusing to provide them service would be a violation of the LGBTQ person's freedom? "Freedom" is used a lot…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#466Earlier quoted context omitted.
What crimes are applicable to software engineers, then? I don't think there are any laws punishing you from writing bad code, nor are there laws addressing data theft or security misconfigurations. GDPR applies against companies and not individual people, as far as I can tell. Would the only valid crimes be related to computer hacking?
Writing an entire operating system in an inherently insecure language?
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, and that's another thing that wouldn't show up in statistics directly. Although it's important to note that alcohol was illegal, and tobacco is becoming increasingly low-status and accordingly restricted. The end of Prohibition meant that the enforcement apparatus for it needed something new to do. I believe this was another contributing factor to continuing the broken logic of Prohibition with new substances.
That's... actually pretty interesting concept to consider. Sometimes I do wonder how much better we could all get along if some substances had relaxed or dropped restrictions. When you think about it, there's the mental toll on users about public disapproval amplified by the legal status. On top of that, the divide on the non user side about someone being a "lawbreaker". Just seems to cause a lot of division. On top…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#468I do wonder why people are so motivated to help the perpetrators of violent crimes. You could take that same energy and help the victims instead. I doubt whoever suffered whatever violence it was that merited 13 years has forgotten the whole thing by now. I doubt they're stoked to see their attacker off to start a cushy new job. You don't get 13 years for something trivial.* If after that time you find it to get a jo…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this account is really going to invoke the celestial teapot as a defense against accepting that there are ex-cons who want to have a normal life, its handlers should shut it down and retrain the algorithm.
Celestial teapot is a defense against people making claims without providing sufficient evidence to support it. By invoking the celestial teapot, I am not taking the opposite position of the one being made, I am taking the position of a rationalist who only accepts claims when sufficient evidence is presented. Let me illustrate with an example: A: Elephants are pink. B: What makes you say they're pink? A: How can you…
Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison
#470Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Germany, that would Intensivtäter (literally intensive perpetrators). It's not rare to have young men with dozens of convictions for assault, breaking and entering, mugging etc. They typically don't get any jail time and will collect more indictments between being arrested and seeing a judge. For Berlin they're having a list of 500 people, almost all male.
I wonder how much better you could make society if you managed to take the worst 1% of scumbags and remove them.