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Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

arstechnica.com

11–20 of 276 posts

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#11
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

Yes prison does deter white collar crime. Petty crime probably not but this kind of shit absolutely.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#12
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

i'd posit that you're jumping to a conclusion.

we've never actually tried prosecuting/convicting/incarcerating CEOs or other high level officials, so we don't know what the deterrent on that would actually be. we need to run the experiments through to the end to see.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#13

Bugs are inevitable. The real issue is with the post office management that prosecuted people they knew there was a good chance were innocent, withheld evidence, falsified evidence, and harassed journalists investigating. What really bothers me is that the CEO of the Organisation at the time was also a Christian priest/deacon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells > witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to…

I have generally found that there's not that much relation between people's stated beliefs and their actual every-day behaviour. By and large, I do think their beliefs are genuine and heart-felt, and that they're not faking them. It's just that it doesn't really influence their daily behaviour all that much. Generally people are motivated by the incentives of the moment, emotion of the moment, and that kind of thing. I am no exception to this by the way.

People often assume that if someone has the "right set of beliefs" (whatever that "right set" is, which may or may not be religious) that they're also a good person. I'm not saying there is zero correlation for all people, but typically it's very small at best, if it even exists at all.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#14

Bugs are inevitable. The real issue is with the post office management that prosecuted people they knew there was a good chance were innocent, withheld evidence, falsified evidence, and harassed journalists investigating. What really bothers me is that the CEO of the Organisation at the time was also a Christian priest/deacon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells > witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to…

It's generous of you to assume that someone's religious affiliation would have any impact on how they conduct their professional lives. Perhaps she should consider working within her preferred religious organization and leave the job open to people whose ethics are more closely aligned with their customers (in this case the presumably secular government of the UK) otherwise people might mistake her as a greedy self-centered plutocrat.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#15
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

I think because both things can be correct. Prison is a deterrent to people who participate in society to a high level, but not to those who fundamentally reject society as they are at the bottom of the pyramid.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#16
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

There are different people on HN with differing views.

I, for one, would never claim that "prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate" without any qualifiers. Maybe some specific systems have some problems, but that's a very different thing than "prisons" as a concept.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#17
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

Like an attorney getting a speeding ticket, sometimes you have to rub a high-level official's face in some dirt to humble them and change institutional policy.

America has weird leadership fetishes. Captains are supposed to go down with the ship but in times of crisis the President abandons us all to run away on his.

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#18

Bugs are inevitable. The real issue is with the post office management that prosecuted people they knew there was a good chance were innocent, withheld evidence, falsified evidence, and harassed journalists investigating. What really bothers me is that the CEO of the Organisation at the time was also a Christian priest/deacon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells > witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to…

> What really bothers me is that the CEO of the Organisation at the time was also a Christian priest/deacon

lol, in my experience... well, let me not finish that sentence

Re: Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known "from the start"

#20
post #3

All the PO lawyers rewriting witness statements must go to jail. All the prosecutors must go to jail for negligence and malpractice.

Odd that so often here on HN we talk about how prisons don't work, don't deter crime, don't rehabilitate... yet whenever some CEO or high level official is caught in malfeasance, we insist that "sending them to jail" is the only proper response.

They don't deter crimes like theft and gang as much as actual thriving wages and possibly for advancement do. But I reckon they might deter crimes such as falsifying evidence or burying hundreds of people in a mass grave behind your work building, if the people doing those crimes actually did go to jail. Wage theft is another crime we should try jails for, those are not people struggling to make ends meet.
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