Prison Map • Hacker News Board

Re: Prison Map

#51

Post by AcerbicZero » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

fpp wrote: post #41

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

" Prisons are the symptom, not the disease " - not if you look at it like those that keep the current system alive and thriving. For them, each of those 4,916 facilities is a profit center renting multi-millions every year (or $Billions overall every year). As soon as you stop allowing to turn prisons into profits with inmate occupations guaranteed by the DoJ but instead come back to a different understanding and del…

If we're going to use medical metaphors for our disaster of a justice system, how about we just admit our prisons are a secondary infection?

Re: Prison Map

#52

Post by UserRights » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

You should take it one step further! Add some interesting information to each prison, especially if it is one lead by a private company, and, most important, the actual profit.

Then in the next step add some charts, user login, connect to a payment service and make it a really cool prison investment exchange! Maybe you could issue some prisoncoins based on the profit numbers. Of course do not forget to publish your own javascript framework that evolved while building it...

However cynical this can get, I doubt that most people will understand that the US model of 'society' is deeply br0ken.

To add something useful: a collaborative data collection of human right violations like e.g torture might be a good tool for triggering a positive change. I am sure there are many other issues that could be attached to the basic gis data collection [1]

Please crowdfund this, so it can grow.

[1] http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/data/

Re: Prison Map

#53

Post by runemadsen » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

To those of you interested in prison architecture and its effect on society, the architecture magazine Clog has made a great publication on it. http://www.clog-online.com/shop/clog-prisons/

Re: Prison Map

#54

Post by jimkri » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

adityasankar wrote: post #11

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

For possession of marijuana it depends on where you are. In Philadelphia where I am in college, possession up to an ounce of marijuana is now just a $25 fine. However in the suburbs where I am from they have zero tolerance and you will go through a lot of crap. So it depends on where you are and what drug you have.

Re: Prison Map

#55

Post by ap22213 » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

Aren't mental health, drug addiction, and crime issues also symptoms of some disease?

Re: Prison Map

#56

Post by bambax » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

> To create Prison Map, Begley coded a script that plugged the known coordinates of prisons and jails nationwide into the Google Maps API. When he ran the script, it snapped a photo of every county jail, state prison (...)

I'm familiar with the GMaps API, but not with how one would do that? Is this run inside a browser/PhantomJS?

Does anyone has an idea how to do this as simply and "cleanly" as possible?

Re: Prison Map

#57

Post by mikeash » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:49 PM UTC

draugadrotten wrote: post #38

marincounty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. Some "Silm Shady" type bought from said friend. Slim Shady decided to shoot someone over a bag. Said friend is in jail for 20 years. Said friend knew nothing of the murder, but the judge felt said friend should be punished--because he supplied an Idiot with weed, and broke federal and state law. The sad part is somehow he talked his brother into join…

> I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. ... we can live comfortably, with low risk Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, as they say. I find it really hard to feel sorry for criminals that are selling so much drugs that they can live comfortably on drug money. That's a significant amount of illegal activity. They knew about the risk, and they took it. Now they have to live with th…

How many crimes have you committed this week?

Re: Prison Map

#58

Post by lectrick » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 3:00 PM UTC

draugadrotten wrote: post #38

marincounty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. Some "Silm Shady" type bought from said friend. Slim Shady decided to shoot someone over a bag. Said friend is in jail for 20 years. Said friend knew nothing of the murder, but the judge felt said friend should be punished--because he supplied an Idiot with weed, and broke federal and state law. The sad part is somehow he talked his brother into join…

> I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. ... we can live comfortably, with low risk Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, as they say. I find it really hard to feel sorry for criminals that are selling so much drugs that they can live comfortably on drug money. That's a significant amount of illegal activity. They knew about the risk, and they took it. Now they have to live with th…

There's enough scientific studies out by now that show that marijuana use is not really a problem.

The fact that an unjust law is still on the books just means that politics and law move too slowly.

I don't know how anyone can stand behind an unjust law "because law, duh," and that's why you're getting downvoted.

Re: Prison Map

#59

Post by jeangenie » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 3:00 PM UTC

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

"Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion." William Blake

Re: Prison Map

#60

Post by mcherm » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 3:05 PM UTC

draugadrotten wrote: post #38

marincounty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. Some "Silm Shady" type bought from said friend. Slim Shady decided to shoot someone over a bag. Said friend is in jail for 20 years. Said friend knew nothing of the murder, but the judge felt said friend should be punished--because he supplied an Idiot with weed, and broke federal and state law. The sad part is somehow he talked his brother into join…

> I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. ... we can live comfortably, with low risk Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, as they say. I find it really hard to feel sorry for criminals that are selling so much drugs that they can live comfortably on drug money. That's a significant amount of illegal activity. They knew about the risk, and they took it. Now they have to live with th…

> That's a significant amount of illegal activity.

No one questions that. The question is over what amount of HARM was done and what is a reasonable response to that.

In other words, if you accept the existing laws at face value, then this is, indeed, terrible "drug kingpin" behavior deserving of severe punishment. And (ducking Godwin's law) if you accept the laws of North Korea, then thousands of people deserve lives of horror and torture for the crime of being born to a prisoner at a re-education camp. The question that I believe we should be asking is whether such laws are just and the punishment appropriate.