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Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

theguardian.com

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Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#61

Post by jeofken »

bitwize wrote: post #8
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #3

I urge anyone touched by this to learn about the prison abolition movement. My favorite thinker on the matter is Angela Davis. She was wrongly imprisoned for over a year in the 1971-1972 which called attention to political prisoners the world over. After a global call for her release she was acquitted of the charges and released. She became a college professor and a prolific author, and is still today a highly respec…

"They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison." --Angela Davis on Czech opponents to the communist regime Seems her opposition to prisons was a bit... selective.

It’s quite disheartening to read this thread, and how the mainstream on HN think they can centrally plan their way out of society’s problems (like UBI), and who excuse communists like this. As if you could just will incorruptible and truly just and virtuous people into government leadership roles, rather than self selected quacks and sophists, who are attracted by power.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#62

Post by kilroy123 »

account42 wrote: post #60
kilroy123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been my experience around the world that about 99% of people are honest for the most part and won't rob or harm you. But... that means there's that 1% who _will_. I think no matter what, that 1% will exist (this is just a gut feeling). That means in the US alone, there are ~3.3 million people roaming around that will rob, steal, murder, rape, and do other horrible things. At a peak, 2.3 million were in prison so…

> It's been my experience around the world that about 99% of people are honest for the most part and won't rob or harm you. But... that means there's that 1% who _will_. I think no matter what, that 1% will exist (this is just a gut feeling). Yes, those tend to be referred to as the 1%.

Exactly, biker gangs even wear a 1% patch. Which means, they're part of that 1%.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#63

Post by danuker »

abbassi wrote: post #42

Julian Assange is in solitary confinement in Belmarsh prison to disclose the war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan!

Speaks a lot about the vindictive nature of states.

Instead of accepting feedback and criticism from the population, they attempt to suppress dissent.

A society is only as strong as the connections between its citizens.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#64

Post by guerrilla »

bserge wrote: post #15
choeger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple answer, no they are not. There are people that need to be locked up to protect society. Think Breivik, or the psychopaths that eradicate whole families for their perverted pleasure. That being said, prisons as a punishment seem to scale very badly. I think that a prison sentence up to maybe a year or so is a very effective deterrent against crimes like tax evasion, theft, fraud, or domestic violence (if it is…

For those kinds of people, why not death? Quick and easy. Somehow keeping them in solitary like absolute animals is more humane?

The reason usually given by people (and even argued in liberal political philosophy) is that the possibility of wrongfully killing someone is not worth it. It's considered not only an injustice to the individual but also harms others effected by the loss of the person.

I agree, but I tend to think life imprisonment can be as bad or worse. Imprisoning someone for life is in many places simply torture, so we're wrongfully torturing someone for the remainder of their life instead while the effects on others can't be that much less, in fact it could prolong their suffering.

The question you have to answer in order to form your opinion is: Given that you are charged with a crime that you did not commit, would you rather serve life in prison (especially given the chance it could be a nightmare prison) or get the death penalty? Personally, I'd take the latter, as I see the former as torture.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#65

Post by jfk13 »

jimnotgym wrote: post #28
throwawaygimp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UBI no one knows. Being sold or otherwise doesn't matter. Small trials here and there aren't much use. We need a country with balls to try it like Portugal did with drug policy. So yea, I'm not sold either. No one really is until we get the hard truth. Nothing more complex (and chaotic) than society and it's economy. Good luck modelling and predicting that reliably ha!

Whilst the detractors of UBI like to paint it as automatically impossible, like breaking some fundamental law of nature, I bet the same people would have said the same things about the Covid benefit schemes. In my country people could be furloughed by their employer on 80% of their salary... and somehow we paid for it ok.

I'm not sure we can yet say with any confidence that "somehow we paid for it ok". The medium- to long-term consequences remain to be worked out....

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#66

Post by hunter-gatherer »

everyone wrote: post #36
jimnotgym wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst the detractors of UBI like to paint it as automatically impossible, like breaking some fundamental law of nature, I bet the same people would have said the same things about the Covid benefit schemes. In my country people could be furloughed by their employer on 80% of their salary... and somehow we paid for it ok.

Most people's jobs are utterly pointless. Yet still, by doing these jobs the workers get money with which they can buy their portion of resources. Let's just do the same thing without the pointless and wasteful busy work. Maybe the only thing stopping us is our cultural values dating back to the industrial revolution when workers were indoctrinated with the idea of work as virtuous.

I mostly agree with this. When I worked in the federal government, a bunch of colleagues there used to jest that it was "middle class welfare". The point being, that a huge portion of the white collar federal employees just exist to fill a billet. The number of free loaders was insane. In my experience, most operations were done by a few, and much of the extra work that was done really didn't need to happen (example: making useless one time spreadsheets with 10 rows and 4 columns filled with data that expires in the short term, embed into powerpoint, make powerpoint look pretty, email it to someone)

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#67

Post by downWidOutaFite »

throwawaygimp wrote: post #9

UBI + health (and other calamity) insurance for all. A strong public mental health system. Prescription drugs of every kind, heroin, meth, whatever. With the right counselling and support attached. I might be an idiot but pretty sure most crime will just go away, then we can spend proper resources to help and support (and punish when needed) the few offenders who really struggle to stay within the rules of society. T…

The man in the article was a political prisoner punished for joining the Black Panthers. It doesnt really have to do with crime unoess you count the crime of abusing the justice system for political purposes.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#68

Post by erdos4d »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #35
grecy wrote: post #7

I recently had to spend 14 days locked in a hotel room alone as mandatory quarantine to enter Australia. Shockingly (for me), after just 14 days I already felt more comfortable inside the room than out, and I got a real glimpse into what being "institutionalized" means. Life was so simple and not scary, it was enjoyable, in a sick kind of way. I couldn't imagine what coming out after an entire year would be like, let…

I'm beginning to really dislike the downvote button. This seems like a perfectly reasonable comment so what purpose is served by fading it out?

This happens so often on here, these extreme downvotings of otherwise normal comments, that I'm convinced this is the product of bots or some other manipulation. I don't think the karma means anything on this board.

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#69

Post by balb0a »

throwawaygimp wrote: post #9

UBI + health (and other calamity) insurance for all. A strong public mental health system. Prescription drugs of every kind, heroin, meth, whatever. With the right counselling and support attached. I might be an idiot but pretty sure most crime will just go away, then we can spend proper resources to help and support (and punish when needed) the few offenders who really struggle to stay within the rules of society. T…

Thomas Sowell would disagree on some points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj3QeGw9Ok

But I don't live in America:).

Re: Experience: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#70

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rkangel wrote: post #44
throwawaygimp wrote: post #9

UBI + health (and other calamity) insurance for all. A strong public mental health system. Prescription drugs of every kind, heroin, meth, whatever. With the right counselling and support attached. I might be an idiot but pretty sure most crime will just go away, then we can spend proper resources to help and support (and punish when needed) the few offenders who really struggle to stay within the rules of society. T…

I think we should absolutely do all of that, for more reasons than just reducing crime. Specifically talking about crime though, I think it becomes diminishing returns. Some countries in Western Europe are not a million miles from that ideal and still have a non-negligible crime rate and homelessness rate. Mental health support is probably the biggest thing missing, at least in part because we (as a planet) are quite…

Plus there's organized crime, white-collar crime, etc; you could get just about enough to keep your head above water, yes, but what if you could become rich instead?
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