Thankfully we have the Internet Archive.
US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
181–190 of 390 posts
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure who's downvoting this because the comment is objectively correct [1][2][3]. The practice of "convict leasing" is modern day slavery. This system should be abolished or, at a minimum, the prisoners should be paid at least minimum wage so we don't have the state to pay to lock people up and then some private corporation to profit off slave labor. [1]: https://harvardpolitics.com/involuntary-servitude-how-priso…
> the prisoners should be paid at least minimum wage so we don't have the state to pay to lock people up and then some private corporation to profit off slave labor. Minimum wage is supposed to cover sustainable food, shelter, clothing and other basic physical needs (leaving aside the question whether it really does, it is the intent). The prisoner has these basic physical needs already taken care of. Therefore, it m…
"Voluntary" is a very blurry line, which is why I think the prisoners should be meaningfully paid.
The US prison system uses "commissary" to further extract wealth from prisoners and their families. We give prisoners substandard food and (usually) insufficient calories. How do they make that up? By paying out of pocket at commissary. And of course everything is overpriced.
Prison phone companies have historically gouged prisoners to keep in touch with family.
We even give female inmates insufficient sanitary products and, to get more, they need to see a doctor. But don't worry, we've financialized that too, as many states require a "co-pay" that might be $6 to see a doctor.
Now that doesn't sound like a lot. But remember if you have a prison job, which you pretty much have to in many prisons, you might be makihng 30 cents an hour.
So on top of forced incarceration, paid for by the state, we just have all these private profit opportunities that prisoners are coerced into.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's probably just me, but it feels like reporting on crime is very lopsided and slanted against the powerless.
The powerless are usually the victims, not the criminals. Criminals are by definition exerting their power (usually through physical violence) over people who have even less "power." Not everything is about power dynamics, and crime rarely is. Far more often it is about selfishness.
Hackers are down voting your comment, but anybody who has been "on the inside" in dealing with criminal cases knows you are speaking the truth. Criminals usually seek out their victims among the people with the least power: Children, youths, addicts, isolated people, mentally weak.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#184I understand this is the general policy in a few places, like Germany. The general idea seems to be that it is more beneficial to a society if criminals are given a viable avenue to lead non-criminal lives again, with the alternative being people going "ah fuck it, I guess I'm a criminal now". I'm surprised at this concept spreading in the US, since the system would generally benefit from having perpetual perpetrator…
There's a much broader problem here: unnecessary background checks. If you're applying for a job or to rent an apartment it absolutely shouldn't matter that you vandalized something 15 years earlier. It's likely automated systems building up these profiles too so what if you happen to just have the same name as someone who was convicted of something in a news article?
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Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It could prevent the public from knowing of the past misdeeds of the powerful. In a world where books, radio, movies, television and the internet didn't exist, and where people had memories like goldfish, maybe.
What's the name of the most powerful drug trafficker in your region?
I don't know, I don't use drugs and I'm not involved in organized crime.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#186Presumably this will increase business sand value for the
various private companies that sit on silos of such data
that you access for a price.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Like, this feels like it's got to include speeding tickets in the mix to get something that high. Speeding is a civil, not criminal, infraction. You can't have the highest prison population in the world for decades and not end up with a bunch of people with criminal records.
The U.S. prison population is around 2M people. I'm not sure how that translates to 77M people with criminal records. (I'm serious about wanting to know more about these statistics and how they're generated. My brief searches trying to find where the data claimed in the linked infographics comes from got me nowhere. EDIT: I found the [National Longitudinal Survey of Youth]( https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy97.htm ) and as…
The vast majority of those with criminal records do not serve prison time. They plea bargain for work release, probation, diversion programs, etc.
For example some types of DUI (drunk driving) is a felony in many states, but extremely common in the population as a whole. Very few do actual prison time unless especially egregious, are repeat offenders, or if they hurt someone during the commission of that crime.
Many other examples abound - ranging from felony (over $1,000 in most places) shoplifting, breaking and entering, bar fights, etc.
Felonies used to mean "high crimes" and were intended to be exceedingly rare and for exceptional crimes, but they have lost any meaning whatsoever over the interceding years.
I believe "criminal records" also includes folks with misdemeanors which is even more common and almost never has associated prison time included in sentencing.
Not sure if the statistics you're referencing re: "criminal records" even includes arrests in that. Many arrests don't result in further prosecution on top of all the above.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#188It is a hard job to figure out where the boundaries go
on what and whom should be forgotten.
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#189Reminds me of a laugh-out-loud closing paragraph in a 2009 NYT article about the clash between Wikipedia & German lawyers over some infamous murderers' right-to-be-forgotten. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13wiki.html Read the whole thing for maximum effect, but for me it beautifully demonstrates the contrast between the USA/Wikipedia/NYT ethos of "the truth is always printable and your speech is by default 'o…
Worth noting that both Germany’s highest criminal court and the European Court of Human Rights in the end decided that the people in question don’t have a right to get their names expunged from archives (or Wikipedia).
Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the prison slavery system. extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Where is the enslavement?
Slave is sometimes also referred to as captured person or captive. An imprisoned person is a captive.
There's usually a work component, though.
An imprisoned person may or may not be enslaved as part of that imprisonment. If they get paid a reasonable wage, they're a prisoner with a job. If they're not forced to work, they're a prisoner but not a slave.