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How I got here

pthorpe92.github.io

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Re: How I got here

#331

Post by mckn1ght »

sgu999 wrote: post #268

I'm always amazed at this country in which incarcerating someone for 10 years (!!) for non violent drug dealing is economical, but public healthcare and education aren't.

It starts to make more sense when you look at the 13th amendment:

> Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Private prisons are in the business of cheap labor, not rehabilitation. It would be extremely expensive to effectively change the lifestyles of millions of people and treat their addiction, not to mention those around them who become traumatized due to their mistakes and follow in their footprints.

We simply lack the necessary amount of political will to do an end run around this by decriminalizing harmful drugs and providing safer pathways of use that can lead to treatment for addiction. Partially because, again, cheap labor! But no doubt also due to moral puritanism.

I’m happy to see there is some movement in state constitutions to do away with this kind of punishment, and even house/senate resolutions proposed to amend the federal constitution, although I don’t know what’s become of that effort.

Re: How I got here

#332

Post by codingrightnow »

strix_varius wrote: post #194
codingrightnow wrote: post #171

As 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…

Thanks for more first hand insight, from a related but different perspective. I'm curious: what led you to leave software engineering? SWE to corrections officer sounds like a rare journey.

My life circumstances were such that I needed a job in a new area where that's all I was qualified to do (meaning I can breathe) while earning enough to live on. Software engineering is not an option within 90 minutes of here. Even if I could get a job in software here and it paid the same, software is significantly more stressful than my current job, the future is unsure as tech is always changing, the people I work with are closer and more friendly/outgoing, and the time off is amazing. When I leave work I'm done, there's no reading up on/practicing the latest stack without any guarantees it's going to increase my employability. When I walk out of the prison, my own personal life is all need to think about. I'd probably not take the job for less than a 50% increase in what I make now. And wages here are so low it just wouldn't happen. I do still enjoy coding but I like it as a hobby. And honestly, I was probably never very good at it.

Re: How I got here

#333

Post by codingrightnow »

qingcharles wrote: post #241
harryvederci wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to make a joke like "He probably wanted to do less stressful work." Then I read that it's not far from the truth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32554517

Correctional Officer is the job that requires the least amount of work of any job I have ever encountered. You literally do nothing the entire day. If your facility is cool you can just play Angry Birds on your phone or desktop all day, or read a book if they're not that cool. You can get infinity overtime at double or triple pay. Plus, you get the added bonus of making the lives of everyone around you as miserable a…

I walk around, stand around, turn keys, and tell inmates no for about 10% of my day. The rest is cake.

Re: How I got here

#334

Post by nayuki »

Parts of Preston Thorpe's story of redemption have similarities to Andreas Kling: https://awesomekling.github.io/I-quit-my-job-to-focus-on-Ser...

> It was October 2018 and I had just completed a 3-month rehab program at a state addiction clinic in Sweden. I was unemployed, staying with family, and had basically nothing going on.

> With no drugs or other vices to pass the time, the days seemed impossibly long. I struggled to find activities to fill them. I enrolled in school for a while, but it wasn’t for me this time either. Eventually I turned to programming, since it’s always been my big interest in life.

Re: How I got here

#335

Post by user_7832 »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #282
hereme888 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha I understand your point. But it is a dangerous substance when used without medical supervision. And more importantly, what I was selling was presumably MDMA. I didn't have kits to check the batches for adulteration. What if people died? I was not ready for that responsibility.

I wonder how many people here would agree with your claim "it is a dangerous substance when used without medical supervision". Often in hacker circles soft drugs are viewed as something people can take on their own provided that, as you suggest, purity is guaranteed. And while setting and trusted and savvy companionship is important, the involvement of a medical professional may kill the whole freespirited vibe.

I’m not sure I’d consider mdma to be a soft drug.

Over-dosing acid by a factor of 10 will be scary for a few hours. Doing it with mdma will likely be scary for your family in the hospital.

Re: How I got here

#336

Post by user_7832 »

jasonlotito wrote: post #305
dvektor wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here again: I told myself I was done chiming in, but this is just something I have to clarify. My parents are absolutely amazing people, and they are the only reason my life has any hope at this point. They were still figuring things out, and didn't understand why I was such a rebellious asshole. Having 4 kids and two of them teenagers isn't easy, and they have been incredibly supportive to my younger siblings…

Doesn't change what they did. Things might be better now, but they still failed. Being a failure doesn't mean you are always a failure, and you can improve. That you have a good relationship with them now is proof of that. But it doesn't change the fact that they were wrong for what they did. Don't take their growth away from them.

Unfortunately I think I mostly agree with you. I’ve fortunately never been that kind of kid, but having the right intentions ≠ doing the right thing very often.

Re: How I got here

#337

Post by somecontext »

daggersandscars wrote: post #288
theoldlove wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One of the article's key points is that violent crime does not mean "caused physical harm" and that entire categories of crime are considered violent by law, whether or not any violence was perpetrated during the commission. "The fourth myth: By definition, “violent crime” involves physical harm The distinction between “violent” and “nonviolent” crime means less than you might think; in fact, these terms are so widel…

In case anyone was curious, the following text is from the section of the article discussing "violent crime":

> Burglary is generally considered a property crime, but an array of state and federal laws classify burglary as a violent crime in certain situations, such as when it occurs at night, in a residence, or with a weapon present. So even if the building was unoccupied, someone convicted of burglary could be punished for a violent crime and end up with a long prison sentence and “violent” record.

The article does not state this explicitly, but it suggests that someone who burgles a residence at night with a weapon should not have a long prison sentence, if the residence turned out to be unoccupied. (Perhaps even if it was occupied but the occupants were not "physically harmed"?)

Re: How I got here

#338

Post by coldtea »

latency-guy2 wrote: post #246
coldtea wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see this as being entitled or avoiding responsibility for his actions Did others commented that? If they read this post like that, then they are part of the problem.

> If they read this post like that, then they are part of the problem. On the other hand, they aren't. One part of the problem is in jail as he should be, and another part of the problem is you.

LOL, yeah, because the jail system works so well, and it's totally not a completely broken, crime ridden society, with crime levels, murders, and so on, the worst among the western peers, despite having the biggest ratio of inmates to general population among them.

Let's keep that, as it's obviously working so well!

Re: How I got here

#339

Post by sgu999 »

mckn1ght wrote: post #331
sgu999 wrote: post #268

I'm always amazed at this country in which incarcerating someone for 10 years (!!) for non violent drug dealing is economical, but public healthcare and education aren't.

It starts to make more sense when you look at the 13th amendment: > Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted , shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Private prisons are in the business of cheap labor, not rehabilitation. It would be extremely expensive to effectively change the lifestyles of…

> Private prisons are in the business of cheap labor, not rehabilitation.

How so? From that post and a few others I've read touching on the topic, it didn't seem obvious that prisoners are being put to work.

Re: How I got here

#340

Post by vt85 »

frob wrote: post #302
morgante wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can stop them from doing it again by locking them up in comfort for 10 years instead of discomfort for 20, then that is what we should do. You're never going to stop many of them from reoffending. Even the "best" rehabilitation programs have crime rates far above the general population. The additional 10 years is 10 more years where they can't hurt innocent people. The justice system exists for the benefit o…

If locking large numbers of people up for inordinately long times prevented crime, the United States would be the safest place in the world. We have 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prison population. We are one of a dwindling number of countries that will lock up a child for life (there was a SCOTUS case baring automatic life sentences for minors, but it leaves a loophole wide enough for a semi to…

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