What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

I once confronted the guy that broke into my car and stole my stereo. He gave everything he still had back (he didn't have the CDs anymore).

For what it's worth, I only went to him directly after the police shrugged it off and wouldn't pursue it. I gave them his address, description, other crimes he had been involved in (drug dealer), etc. They didn't care, and when the crime happened couldn't even be bothered to lift a couple of prints.

I was so angry when he said "sorry man, I figured your insurance would cover it, no hard feelings". But, looking back, he was just dumb as hell and stealing from a friend of a friend you met once made sense to him...In this sort of situation, handling the issue directly worked out for me better than going to the police.

let me know what kind of developer you are. Can you PM me on Hacker News.

Of course my self-involved reaction to this discussion is "what does a geek do to land themselves in prison?" I'm guessing probably mostly drug offenses, and maybe occasionally hacking related activities. Anything else? I'm sure violent crime is pretty unusual. Maybe tax evasion?

Original statement:

I learned that you should go straight to the person you're upset with rather than go to authorities.

Your response:

This is bullshit and dumb advice. If someone steals my bike and I find out who it is, I'm not going to go to his apartment and beat him to death in the middle of the day (smart money on confronting a scumbag not leading to a productive conversation).

So it appears you are interpreting "go straight to" as "confront with violence"?

There are any number of circumstances where going to the person you believe responsible may be beneficial over including the authorities. For example:

1) You are wrong in who you think perpetrated the crime. Involving the authorities may cause great harm to that individual, event if they are found innocent. Talking to them first may clear up misunderstandings.

2) It was a misunderstanding. Maybe there wasn't even a crime, what you thought you saw/experienced wasn't the case. Getting a fuller picture may result in your reassessment of the situation.

3) You don't think the punishment meted out will fit the crime committed, and you want to give them a chance to make amends. Maybe they are young, and you can speak to a parental figure to try to resolve the issue.

4) You have some relation to them or people close to them that you would rather not sour.

That isn't to say don't go to the authorities. Of course there are cases where you go directly to the authorities. I doubt the author would dispute that.

The real world is a place of nuance. I feel confident asserting that you know this to some degree. Acting like it isn't doesn't do anything useful, least of all lead to a conversation that has much benefit.

You get access to Corrlinks email you pay a lot for if in fed prison, and since min security is where most criminals end up so they can perform nearly free labour there is barely any violence. If you follow the simple rules of prison nothing is likely to happen to you. Rules are never talk to guards you will look like a snitch, accept nothing from other inmates, don't talk about any other inmate if they arent in front of you and do your own time. A good example is somebody tells you hey that guy over there called you a goof. This person is trying to get you to beat somebody up for them but since you do your own time you laugh it off and reply he can say it to your face, then the weasel guy slinks away to find another sucker to fight for him.

Prison is just being really bored all the time for the most part and working menial labor for pennies a day. Hopefully people you know send you books. If you maintain a prison blog BOP will read it and punish you severely for any criticisms. Like months in solitary. Don't ever release pictures either and put them on social media or online even if you get permission. Solitary again.

The most interesting prison is where foreigners are housed in the US @ D Ray. There is no racism because no Americans so none of that don't eat with people outside yout race crap and hardly any other silly rules American inmates make up. The spanish inmates have a union everybody joins to coordinate disobedience against the guards whenever they crackdown on the library or other rights you're supposed to get from BOP. Other fed prisons it's mainly run by illiterate racists and gangs who for the most part leave you alone unless you break a rule or have money to extort.