Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#151

Post by danielvf » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #45

Karunamon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but unless you want a permanent under class of people unable to find real employment, there needs to be an on-ramp. Either someone is too dangerous to have in public (which case they should still be imprisoned), or they have served their sentence and their punishment is over.

To add to this, 45% of people in federal prison are there for a drug charge. https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen... Only a little over 1/3rd are actually in prison for violent crime.

That's a stat for Federal prisons - it's a completely different set of laws and crimes than state and local laws, and only 10% Americans incarcerated are in federal prisons.

Here's a breakdown by most serious offense for my state's prison system:

https://www.doc.sc.gov/research/InmatePopulationStats/ASOF-M...

Which has 16% drugs, but also:

26% homicide, 12% Robbery, 11% Burglary, 9.5% Rape/Sexual assault, 6.6% Kidnapping, 6.4% Assault.

I wrote an blog post a while back about how prison populations skew so much towards the most violent crimes.

http://braino.org/essays/why_so_many_people_in_prison/

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#152

Post by tyingq » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:37 PM UTC

Sad to hear this, and appreciate your efforts.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#153

Post by jupp0r » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:37 PM UTC

gremlinsinc wrote: post #126

RBBronson123 wrote: post #99

When I announced the launch of 70 Million Jobs on HN back in 2017, it proved to be one of the most widely read and discussed posts ever on the site. I was totally blown away. Once again, I am struck by the incredibly sensitive and supportive tenor of the reactions to my news here. For some context, besides having a criminal record, I was/am a solo founder who somehow talked his way into Y Comb. Perhaps most surprisin…

This sounds awesome, I want to do something similar, only with housing for people with bad credit, or records, or anything really that makes keeping housing rough. My grand idea is creating an intentional community with some glamping areas for cashflow, a community garden, shared tools and worker space with 3d printers, recreational vehicles, brooms, rakes, etc...things you really don't need to 'own', and cut back on…

Isn't this basically a trailer park?

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#154

Post by oceanplexian » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:42 PM UTC

giraffe_lady wrote: post #118

torbTurret wrote: post #81

“These are some of the most sincere, honest, and heroic people I’ve ever met.” Yeah, I think we’re too hard as a nation on ex-cons. But they’re not heroes because they went through self-imposed hardships (and almost always at the expense of someone innocent). And they’re certainly among the lower rungs of honesty by categorization. Nowhere near the top. If this sounds harsh, just act their victims.

fuck offffff seriously. The hardships aren't self-imposed, our justice system is specifically and intentionally retributive , imposing punishment for its own sake rather than imposing consequences with the goal of rehabilitation. And we're talking here of additional ad-hoc social punishments beyond the terms of the sentence that make finding a job harder. The level of personal discipline it takes to get released and…

> The hardships aren't self-imposed, our justice system is specifically and intentionally retributive

If you want to know why this is, I would recommend Discipline and Punish by Foucault. Our present systems of justice go back hundreds of years, when a crime was considered an attack on the sovereign, aka the King, or the Prince. Back then crimes were punished by Hanging, or Torture, and it was done as an exercise of terror. The primary purpose of this wasn't the prevention of crime (Do you really think royalty cared if peasants killed each-other?), but rather punishment for disobeying the King.

All modern systems of Law are essentially still medieval systems, and it's why crimes that happen exclusively between two people are prosecuted as Person v. State of Whatever. The process of justice isn't for the criminal, it's to remind the rest of us of the total power of the State.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#155

Post by atentaten » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:43 PM UTC

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #148

RBBronson123 wrote: post #99

When I announced the launch of 70 Million Jobs on HN back in 2017, it proved to be one of the most widely read and discussed posts ever on the site. I was totally blown away. Once again, I am struck by the incredibly sensitive and supportive tenor of the reactions to my news here. For some context, besides having a criminal record, I was/am a solo founder who somehow talked his way into Y Comb. Perhaps most surprisin…

This might really be a stupid question and I can imagine you have other things to do right now, so zero hard feelings if you don’t answer: But regarding this whole Great Resignation thing, not only in this specific context but in general — there is one thing that I just don’t get: What on earth are these Resignators doing? Where do they go? I mean all those people have to end up SOMEWHERE in the job market, don’t the…

This is a pertinent question that deserves to be answered by anyone who can shed some insight.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#156

Post by hyperbovine » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #129

notch656a wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emigration honestly is the most logical option for a felon. A few nations will accept local background checks in the immigration process, so if you move to a state where you don't have a record you can just get your police report from a place where your record is clean. Another option is to go live in a Compact of Free Association nations such as Micronesia or Marshall Islands. US citizens are authorized to live and…

How is a person with a criminal record, no job, no support network, and no savings supposed to move to another country?

They’re not. Even by Internet forum standards this is absolutely terrible advice.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#157

Post by einpoklum » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

> companies made wholesale terminations of nearly all our people

The "employment at will" doctrine at work. Terrible.

I would attribute that to the weak US labor, and its failure to do away with this via country-wide/industry-wide labor agreements make this impossible, or appropriate legislation. Many (most?) countries don't have this doctrine.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#158

Post by upupandup » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

notch656a wrote: post #42

buf wrote: post #31

This really bums me out. I was a convicted felon at 18 years old, poor, living on the street. It wasn't any government re-integration program that helped me, it was a random person I met in highschool. I worked my way through everything -> college -> jobs -> startups -> lucky windfalls -> owning my own company. I've immigrated to Europe (3 times in the last 10 years technically), beating the legal issues each time. A…

Emigration honestly is the most logical option for a felon. A few nations will accept local background checks in the immigration process, so if you move to a state where you don't have a record you can just get your police report from a place where your record is clean. Another option is to go live in a Compact of Free Association nations such as Micronesia or Marshall Islands. US citizens are authorized to live and…

I can't say if emigration is a solution here since most developed countries, especially East Asia, automatically denies entry if you are a felon. Seems like there is a limited pool of countries that are willing to look the other way.

We are talking island states, perhaps Thailand, Eastern Europe.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#159

Post by sebastianconcpt » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:47 PM UTC

buf wrote: post #63

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's your type of understanding and fervor that's needed for a 70MR to move forward. Have you considered taking it over? Think about it. Sometimes you're the solution.

I haven't considered taking it over until your comment just now. I've always told myself I'd write a book and do some talks at some point in my life, but I've been heads down either trying to survive or building companies that I put it off. Thanks for the idea. Richard, I'll shoot you an email.

Definitively sounds like you have one of the bests existing opportunities to implement the 2.0 of that idea.

Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down

#160

Post by notch656a » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 9:49 PM UTC

upupandup wrote: post #158

notch656a wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emigration honestly is the most logical option for a felon. A few nations will accept local background checks in the immigration process, so if you move to a state where you don't have a record you can just get your police report from a place where your record is clean. Another option is to go live in a Compact of Free Association nations such as Micronesia or Marshall Islands. US citizens are authorized to live and…

I can't say if emigration is a solution here since most developed countries, especially East Asia, automatically denies entry if you are a felon. Seems like there is a limited pool of countries that are willing to look the other way. We are talking island states, perhaps Thailand, Eastern Europe.

OP said he immigrated to 3 different European countries with a felony record.

East Asia would not be my choice for legal residency as a felon. Although I would note if you're not applying for a visa, they rarely actually have mechanisms to check your criminal record unless someone influential takes a specific liking to you.

As I mentioned there are a number of nations that only require background check from countries you've lived in for the past X years. Therefore if you live somewhere else for X years you can then leapfrog to that country.