It's a little late, so this will get buried, but I had a similar experience.
I caught two felonies (both from the same incident)
Luckily, I had a good job at the time and it was my first offense, so I was able to get house arrest.
After seeing what could have been my life, I completed my BS in CS, online part-time and convinced the state of California to let me move there.
I received five years of probation, so even though I was off house arrest, I had to convince the state of California to take me as a probationer.
I don't think this is usually offered, even though I had gainful employment waiting for me. I feel very fortunate.
Since then, I've worked for various startups and Fortune 50 companies as a software engineer. I was lucky enough that the tech industry valued me more for my skills than punished me for my past.
I will be forever grateful to the state of California and the tech industry for this.
I've looked into, and tried to volunteer for various programs that try to teach inmates or felons technical/engineering skills. All have fallen through.
I'd love to hear what you're working on OP, and if you want to brainstorm a way we can try and help more inmates turn their life around through software development.
How I got here
251–260 of 373 posts
Re: How I got here
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's unfair to say it "makes" them that way. They were incarcerated because they already proved willing to commit a crime. It failed to change them back into an average citizen, sure. Understandably a very difficult problem. It's quite possible that it makes them worse instead of better but we'd need different evidence to show that.
Not everyone who is incarcerated committed a crime. Some are in custody for having marijuana which has since been decriminalized in some areas. Others are there because they plea bargained due to pressure. Almost no one who is in custody ever had a trial despite this being a “right” in the USA.
We're talking about averages here. Certainly there are plenty of individuals wrongly incarcerated, etc.
Re: How I got here
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. It's not "powers that be" that impose this system on Americans, it's we Americans ourselves. We vote for politicians who are tough on crime - meaning long prison sentences, unsafe conditions, no robust public defense.
All true, but we also don’t rehabilitate. Prisoners should come out better then they went in not worse.
We are in agreement. I could have added "... prioritize retribution with rehabilitation at best an afterthought"
Re: How I got here
#254As a former software engineer for over a decade and current corrections officer in a max level state facility, this is a very interesting topic. My facility has a large college presence within it. While there are problems with it, I think overall it is probably a net positive for the staff and inmates. At the same time, I don't believe that we have more than maybe a small handful of nonviolent/drug offenders; anybody…
Some statistics here: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html
~60% of the state prison population (~600k of ~1m) are imprisoned for a violent crime. Much higher than I would have guessed.
Re: How I got here
#255TFA is interesting but I've got a problem with this: > I was left with the difficult choice of either living there and walking to a temp agency with hopes of making $10.50/hour doing manual labor (without an ID or social security card at this point), or getting on a bus to NYC to see some associates, and coming back in a week or so with $15-25k in my pocket and living in comfy luxury hotels until I could rent an apar…
But OP claims to be committing nonviolent drug crimes. Depending on your philosophy you may feel you’re not doing anything morally wrong by selling drugs. Upholding the law for the laws’ sake isn’t obviously good.
It’s admirable that you’re father did what he did without resorting to becoming a negative influence on society, but I bet most people on HN have broken the law in some small way many times in their life. Breaking the law and hurting others are not always the same.
Re: How I got here
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fuck me, carfentanil is one of those things I read about years ago, that seemed like it would never get anywhere near the recreational drug market, because it’s just too potent and too dangerous to handle safely… Ah, I see from your link it was u-47700 he was arrested with. Certainly a potent and potentially lethal substance, but not exactly on the same scale as carfentanil. U-47700 is quoted as 7.5x the potency of m…
Apologies. I read a news article about him being charged with carfentanil possession and assumed the conviction referred to that. Apparently the carfentanil was found in his apartment and he was later caught with the other synthetic opioid.
Well, god help whoever gets that in their syringe. AFAICT its main 'legit' use was to bring down large animals like elephants, fast, but that seems to have stopped in 2003. It has also probably been used as a chemical weapon in Russia!
I guess it was the next logical step in the "smaller quantities of more powerful stuff are easier to smuggle" race, but I'd expect to see more dealers turning up dead from accidental exposure if it became widespread.
Re: How I got here
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah this guy belongs in jail and clearly doesn’t think what he did was a problem at all. In the midst of an epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year the dealers of these drugs make the front page and are cheered on as “victims.” The victims here are the families and children of the people whose abuse he profited greatly off of.
Author, here: As a severe opioid addict myself for over 10 years, I am absolutely ashamed of having any part in that life. It is a burden that I will have to continue dealing with every day for the rest of my life. In no way am I trying to say that I did not deserve to go to prison. The focus of this post, was about the facilities made available to those people who do end up in prison, so that they do not return. As…
Hey, don't let the keyboard warriors get to you. HN commentors will always find a way to position themselves as smugly superior.
Thanks for your great blog post.
Re: How I got here
#258> particularly those affected by the war on drugs, like myself, who has spent 1/3 of his life imprisoned for non-violent drug crimes Still not quite ready to take responsibility for his actions... You weren't magically "affected" by the war on drugs. You went into crime for the easy money, but found out you weren't very good at avoiding getting caught.
It's not like they've scammed others with crypto or tried to overtake markets with price dumping tactics or bribed the governments to use their software or spied on billions for profit.
They've just lorried stuff other poor people wanted. That should not be illegal. The above should.
Re: How I got here
#259Amazing read
Re: How I got here
#260I could have been that guy, and worse. When I was 19 I got caught selling a bunch of MDMA at a night club. Undercover police caught me, and by God's grace they chose to let me go. MDMA had just begun to carry a minimum 10 yr prison sentence throughout the state. I had no idea what I was doing in my life, like I was asleep and not awake, until I got caught that night. About 15 minutes into the interrogation at the sce…
NACAB