Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

lithub.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#11

Post by JudasGoat »

jdsully wrote: post #7
chrisseaton wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between a jail and a prison? They're the same thing in my country.

Jails are run by the local municipal or regional governments and generally speaking only house inmates for sentences of less than a year. San Diego appears to be an outlier with that 6+ year figure. A prison is run by the state and is geared towards those with much longer sentences.

In Massachusetts You can get as long as a 2 1/2 year sentence in county jail. You also can't get a state prison sentence from a district court. You have to be indicted and sentenced in Superior Court to do state prison time. In theory You could be sentenced to 3 consecutive 2 1/2 year county jail sentences in a District Court, that is rare, I believe. Contempt of Court is an outlier that is served in a county jail, but with a possible life sentence.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#12

Post by ajcarpy2005 »

While I was in prison, I received The Rise of the Creative Class. I also received an Artificial Intelligence textbook as well. And I received Headstrong.

I did a lot of reading. In fact, once I got a chance to go to the computer lab, I wrote upwards of 100 articles. I wrote articles about introductory AI, health, and science.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#14

Post by segmondy »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6
rootw0rm wrote: post #3

inmates are unable to receive used books in San Diego county jails. the books must be sent new directly from the book store. this greatly increases the cost of some books. also, due to state-local policies, some inmates do up to 6 years in county jail. county is quite a bit worse than prison in California....there's way less to do.

What's the difference between a jail and a prison? They're the same thing in my country.

Jail is for misdemeanor sentences, less than 1 year. Prison is for felony crimes, 1 or more year. Jail is also used as a holding area till someone is transferred to prison.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#15

Post by elliekelly »

whatshisface wrote: post #13
WalterBright wrote: post #2

Prisoners have a human right to be able to read books.

How can reading books be a human right when humans went 190,000 years without writing? Was every pre-literate culture violating a human right?

That logic doesn’t really hold up. Would you make that same argument about modern medicine?

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#16

Post by epicureanideal »

bredren wrote: post #10

Volunteered for Books for Prisoners in Portland for a time. Prisoners would write asking for subjects, not by title since that was super unlikely. Often we would mail a mix of magazines and books. Every jail has different rules. Each package would get custom consideration for which jail it was going to. Sometimes stuff would just get confiscated for no reason. Some of the letters were sad to read. The appreciation an…

Yes, this seems needlessly restrictive. What's the harm in letting someone with nothing better to do read Harry Potter? I could imagine restrictions on certain kinds of books... like how to cover up forensic evidence, or how to tie knots, or whatever... but Harry Potter, or computer programming?

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#17

Post by WalterBright »

whatshisface wrote: post #13
WalterBright wrote: post #2

Prisoners have a human right to be able to read books.

How can reading books be a human right when humans went 190,000 years without writing? Was every pre-literate culture violating a human right?

Prisons are a recent invention. Ancient punishments were execution, banishment, enslavement or mutilation.

Since people go insane with lack of stimulation in solitary, I'd say stimulation is indeed a basic human right.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#18

Post by jandrese »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #4
WalterBright wrote: post #2

Prisoners have a human right to be able to read books.

Convince most Americans that prisoners deserve anything but punishment.

Convincing a simple majority of Americans isn't that difficult, but legislators are a different story.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#19

Post by pjc50 »

epicureanideal wrote: post #16
bredren wrote: post #10

Volunteered for Books for Prisoners in Portland for a time. Prisoners would write asking for subjects, not by title since that was super unlikely. Often we would mail a mix of magazines and books. Every jail has different rules. Each package would get custom consideration for which jail it was going to. Sometimes stuff would just get confiscated for no reason. Some of the letters were sad to read. The appreciation an…

Yes, this seems needlessly restrictive. What's the harm in letting someone with nothing better to do read Harry Potter? I could imagine restrictions on certain kinds of books... like how to cover up forensic evidence, or how to tie knots, or whatever... but Harry Potter, or computer programming?

The loss of control and autonomy over irrelevant little things like this is one of those things that reinforces the power and cruelty of the guards.

Re: Sharing Books with My Dad in Prison

#20

Post by kasey_junk »

epicureanideal wrote: post #16
bredren wrote: post #10

Volunteered for Books for Prisoners in Portland for a time. Prisoners would write asking for subjects, not by title since that was super unlikely. Often we would mail a mix of magazines and books. Every jail has different rules. Each package would get custom consideration for which jail it was going to. Sometimes stuff would just get confiscated for no reason. Some of the letters were sad to read. The appreciation an…

Yes, this seems needlessly restrictive. What's the harm in letting someone with nothing better to do read Harry Potter? I could imagine restrictions on certain kinds of books... like how to cover up forensic evidence, or how to tie knots, or whatever... but Harry Potter, or computer programming?

There is s legitimate safety concern. That is certain parts of books can be turned into weapons.

But the real issue is one of control. Treating prisoners as subhuman is a management practice.

Post reply on HN