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The underground economy of solitary confinement

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Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#21

Post by randomacct8162 »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #14
randomacct8162 wrote: post #3

I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…

What did/do you do for a living, tech related? How did it affect your career to have a felony drug charge?

I was on computers a lot as a kid and sort of taught myself programming (very poorly) in my early years.

When I caught this charge, I had just turned 18. It really ruined my life.

Currently, I work in tech. For a very long time I was barely making ends meet, working in a fast food restaurant for minimum wage while trying to interview to get a developer job.

I went through 8 interview processes, and received offers from all but one. Each one of them was rescinded when HR learned that I had a felony, as a matter of company policy.

It was really heartbreaking and a lot of times, it made me want to give up on life and just stop trying. I kept interviewing and going to events/networking, and eventually found a very low-paying job at a local place and sort of slowly worked my way back up from there.

If anyone here has some degree of power at a company and wants to make a difference in the world, convince your company to hire felons with non-violent/non-finance related offenses.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#22

Post by syki »

randomacct8162 wrote: post #19
syki wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I taught a semester in a max security prison. It was described to me as a controlled movement facility. It was an interesting experience and one that stuck with me. That prison was a bad place. Thanks for your anecdote about the former police officer.

Thank you for doing that, it's an important job. I learned spanish by taking an hour-long spanish class every weekday while I was in there. If your class wasn't mandatory, then I'm sure you know that most people were just there probably to get extra time out of their cell or to break the monotony. And I assume most of them were complete assholes to you. After I am financially independent, I want to try to get state/f…

I quickly figured out they were mostly there to break the monotony. I threw out the curriculum and did basic graph theory and some logic stuff. I only had one run in with someone. The prisoners treated me decently. I gave them all passing grades and just wanted them to get out of the experience whatever they wanted to get out of it.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#24

Post by Dieselroar88 »

Did 20 months in federal for selling cannabis. Also spent time in solitary. Conditions are far worse than you could imagine. Also, many prisons are functionally solitary so the 4% number is way low.

The economic networks in prisons are wild, and of course there are incentives for guards to participate.

Not only are there massive number of cell phones in prisons, there are cell phones in solitary because the guards smuggle them in.

Capitalism, what a thing, eh?

AMA

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#25

Post by mgkimsal »

randomacct8162 wrote: post #21
WhitneyLand wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did/do you do for a living, tech related? How did it affect your career to have a felony drug charge?

I was on computers a lot as a kid and sort of taught myself programming (very poorly) in my early years. When I caught this charge, I had just turned 18. It really ruined my life. Currently, I work in tech. For a very long time I was barely making ends meet, working in a fast food restaurant for minimum wage while trying to interview to get a developer job. I went through 8 interview processes, and received offers fr…

Had to go search for it, but YC funded a company - https://www.70millionjobs.com - that focuses on felon-friendly companies hiring.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#26

Post by Ekaros »

randomacct8162 wrote: post #21
WhitneyLand wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did/do you do for a living, tech related? How did it affect your career to have a felony drug charge?

I was on computers a lot as a kid and sort of taught myself programming (very poorly) in my early years. When I caught this charge, I had just turned 18. It really ruined my life. Currently, I work in tech. For a very long time I was barely making ends meet, working in a fast food restaurant for minimum wage while trying to interview to get a developer job. I went through 8 interview processes, and received offers fr…

I never understood the whole felon thing, if that is allowed discrimination outside certain roles how can those people ever be expected back to society? Ofc, they are going to do more crime if it is their only realistic option for reasonable income.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#27

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

What is the alternative to solitary confinement?

There are some people who are a persistent threat and menace to others. There are 3 ways that society has dealt with them:

Execution

Banishment

Imprisonment

We are trying to do away with execution, so that is not a real alternative. Banishment really doesn't work in the modern, connected world. That leaves imprisonment. However, within prison, you also have a society, and then the question becomes, how do you deal with people who are a threat and menace to other prisoners and guards. Again you end up with the 3 options. Following through, you eventually end up with either solitary confinement or execution as the solution to people who are a persistent threat and menace to others.

Is solitary confinement over used? Yes. But I have not heard a really good alternative.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#29

Post by jrochkind1 »

> about 2.3 million people are incarcerated in the United States. On average, close to 4% of them are held in solitary confinement.

Almost 100K people in solitary confinement is insane. These are dehumanizing psychologically destabilizing conditions, with permanent psychological effects, that are among the worst thing you can do to someone.

I find it incredible that it has become so standardize and ordinary in the USA, instead of a rare last resort thing for extreme problems.

Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement

#30

Post by jopsen »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20
randomacct8162 wrote: post #3

I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…

Holy shit I didn't know that. Those guards belong in jail themselves, what they did is torture. Prison exists to remove from society people who are incompatible with it, nothing more and even that must be constantly questioned and re-evaluated. Nobody deserves to have their dignity stripped away like that.

> Those guards belong in jail themselves...

The guards are just the product of a system/culture.

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