Exactly like it is to be any other privileged white boy in prison.
What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
241–250 of 255 posts
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
if arnor.knows(a_hole, stole_wallet) and (a_hole not instanceof psychopath or a_hole.physical_strength
Cute, but when you're confronting someone, the situation can always turn violent. Let's say that you confront someone and end up punching him/her in the mouth and get a cut on your hand. You could get a serious infection or a disease, even though you "won."
Really? You don't confront a colleague about not doing what he promised, but you go to your boss, because it could turn violent? You don't confront your neighbour about the noisy party, but you call the landlord, because it could turn violent? You don't confront your teammate about not giving enough passes, but you complain to your coach, because it could turn violent?
You are showing quite a lack of imagination in applying the maxim you complain about in your top-level post.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#243"I learned that you should go straight to the person you're upset with rather than go to authorities." 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). Fuck that. The reason we have "authorities" is because we have peo…
The 'authorities' does not just mean 'the police/government'. In most situations in life there are 'authorities' and the point is that you shouldn't immediately involve them.
You confront a colleague about not doing what he promised and don't immediately go to your boss. You confront your neighbour about the noisy party and don't immediately complain to the landlord. You confront your teammate about not giving enough passes and don't immediately complain to your coach. In general, you solve the problem on your own, directly with the person you have a problem with, before asking someone else, usually someone with more authority, to do it for you. That is the point of the maxim.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're replying to a throwaway account, so I doubt the poster is going to put an email address on it. Make yourself contactable instead (e.g., an email or something similar in your profile text), and cross your fingers.
My email is easily found in my comment history, in an attachment. My actual username is on permavacation; I thought the field was in seconds and it's in minutes. Whoops. I prefer that my identity remain a little difficult to find because there are people on the Internet that stalk me and are regular readers here.
Consider obfuscating that just a little, so that googling for for your actual username wont bring up this post.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
What recourse would you have for someone repeatedly walking into your house at night to steal your stuff? That's a non-violent crime, but it's still deeply disturbing for the victim.
Not to mention: forgery, counterfeiting, embezzlement, bribery, tax fraud
There is no need to put such people in prison. How is that productive for society?
These people are clearly intelligent, so put them to work. Dock their pay until they pay off the damage they caused plus penalties to discourage future behavior.
These people are all motivated financially, so hit them where it hurts, the wallet.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's awful that our justice system creates this sort of mentality Oh, certainly, but it's not exactly the worst part about our system. I'm guessing a bit here, but I don't get the feeling the gentlemen stepping forward are of the violent variety? Why are we putting non-violent individuals in prisons? Just a thought.
What recourse would you have for someone repeatedly walking into your house at night to steal your stuff? That's a non-violent crime, but it's still deeply disturbing for the victim.
Sending someone to prison for a non-violent property offense to to sentence them to direct violence, that is not even remotely just or equitable.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the same situation I'd probably acted the same. Yes, it's likely that the actual sentence would have been much lower. But there's still a very significant chance of spending the rest of your life in jail.
There was no chance of him spending the rest of his life in jail. That is the point of the preceding comment. Requisite Popehat post: http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence...
Those are federal sentencing guidelines. I am not entirely he was charged with a state offense whose mandatory minimum sentence for the count was 5 years. According to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Sentencin... wiki, state judges are not bound at all to these guidelines.
You are absolutely right, he would probably not have spent the rest of his life in jail. However, staring down the barrel of a minimum 5 year imprisonment with the possibility of more, depending on whether or not the judge had a bad day seems way too risky.
In my opinion, there should be no mandatory minimum sentences. Each action is literally taken on a case-by-case basis, so what purpose do they serve other than to force defendants into plea bargains?
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention: forgery, counterfeiting, embezzlement, bribery, tax fraud
There is no need to put such people in prison. How is that productive for society? These people are clearly intelligent, so put them to work. Dock their pay until they pay off the damage they caused plus penalties to discourage future behavior. These people are all motivated financially, so hit them where it hurts, the wallet.
what if they refuse to work? Do they just get to walk away?
Not saying the solution is prison but a lot of people who commit things like large-scale fraud are usually psychopaths to some degree, and might also not make the most "rational" decisions. Expecting "normal" reactions to such propositions might be a bit much.
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#249You 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 fron…
Know of a place where we can read up on the foreigner's prison? Seems like an interesting environment
Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically, I gave a ride to a couch-surfer that ended up committing a robbery. Instead of turning them in when I found out, I just kicked them out... but the police said that made me an accomplice so I went to prison for 6 months and was on probation for 10 years. I was charged as an adult, so it can't be sealed. Even if I managed to get the records expunged by donating enough money to $partyInPower, it wouldn't matt…
> it wouldn't matter much because all the data brokers have already bought that information and are under no obligation to remove the information from their databases. That's actually not right. If you get a criminal record expunged, the FCRA requires those data brokers to not release those records ever again to whoever runs a background check on you. If they do it, they're in violation of the FCRA. The thing that su…
Re: FCRA and bureaucracy
The US federal gov't outsources a large portion of its employment background checks to a company that the FTC has charged with violating FCRA. The contractor settled for $2.6 million and kept its contracts, clearing both NSA leaker Snowden and DC Navy Yard shooter Alexis along the way.
http://www.ccjdigital.com/background-reports-on-navy-yard-sh...
On topic: Even the US trucking industry, which is desperate to hire people desperate enough to put up with ridiculous hours and weeks away from home -- working hours that are nonetheless ridiculously regulated -- is hesitant to hire felons. Accidents, plaintiffs' lawyers, juries, etc.