Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared (2021) • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared (2021)

#101

Post by bsder » Sat, May 20, 2023, 5:41 AM UTC

MandieD wrote: post #72

bsder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry. You shouldn't be able to waive your right to a jury trial. Everyone should go through the trial even when they are dead to rights guilty. The state should have to prove to a jury that they did their job convicting you. Plea deals become implied threats . Take this cheaper deal or we'll throw this massive set of stuff at you. Remember Aaron Swartz? You wipe that out by wiping out plea deals.

If everyone had to go through a jury trial (which I kind of agree that they should), what's your threshold for allowing them to remain out of jail before trial? How much are you willing to give jurors as a stipend for missing work? How much do you want to spend fitting out new courtrooms? Because if all three are not extremely generous by current US standards, you're going to be forcing innocent/kind of guilty people…

> we don't have nearly enough judges, jury members or court capacity to give everyone the speedy trial with a jury of their peers.

Then perhaps we are arresting far too many people for things that don't matter?

If you remove low-level drug offenders from the system, suddenly there is a LOT more capacity.

Or, mentioning my earlier example, why the hell was a federal prosecutor gung ho to go after Aaron Swartz? Apparently there wasn't anything more important to be spending time on. That doesn't look like a very overloaded court system to me.

If the general public had to actually PAY for the justice system, perhaps they'd suddenly discover that they want it a lot smaller.

Re: Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared (2021)

#102

Post by candiodari » Sun, May 21, 2023, 9:24 AM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #89

caditinpiscinam wrote: post #8

The system is working as intended. I've seen a lot of talk recently about crime and calls for various people to be imprisoned; everyone from carjackers to right-wing vigilantes. In the midst of these conversations, please remember: prisons exist to torture prisoners. Excerpts from another recent Marshall project article: > An officer who broke his baton hitting a prisoner 35 times, even after the man was handcuffed,…

The most amazing part is that these people have the gall to call themselves "correction officers". What are they correcting, exactly?

The state, and judges, refuse to attack their soldiers. And by allowing sadists, they get to pay them slightly less.

Re: Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared (2021)

#103

Post by gamblor956 » Mon, May 22, 2023, 3:39 AM UTC

hello_computer wrote: post #96

gamblor956 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link you cited points out that private prisons... drive up the cost of prison. While private prisons are cheaper on a per-day basis, they hold prisoners behind bars longer than public prisons (an average of 90 days) due to increased use of behavioral infraction citations, which negates most of the savings. The link also notes that other costs, like the lawsuit settlements, negate any remaining theoretical savings…

You wrote 2-3x. Per Wikipedia, WADOC has an annual budget of $2.2B.[0] Even if private prisons did cost Washington taxpayers another $10.6M a year, that is nowhere near 2-3x in a budget that large. Add another 10% to that, and we're still nowhere near 2-3x. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Department_of... > the "usual suspects" in destroying the economy Where did I accuse anyone of "destroying the…

Private prisons cost 2-3x as much per prisoner, and the research demonstrates that.

Of course they don't cost 2-3x more than an entire state prison system. Even the Southern states that love private prisons couldn't afford that.

Re: Writing Is My Main Freedom. One Day My Work Disappeared (2021)

#104

Post by hello_computer » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:15 AM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #103

hello_computer wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wrote 2-3x. Per Wikipedia, WADOC has an annual budget of $2.2B.[0] Even if private prisons did cost Washington taxpayers another $10.6M a year, that is nowhere near 2-3x in a budget that large. Add another 10% to that, and we're still nowhere near 2-3x. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Department_of... > the "usual suspects" in destroying the economy Where did I accuse anyone of "destroying the…

Private prisons cost 2-3x as much per prisoner, and the research demonstrates that. Of course they don't cost 2-3x more than an entire state prison system. Even the Southern states that love private prisons couldn't afford that.

Why won't you cite that research then, instead of these baby numbers--quoting a top estimated savings of under $11M over an entire state system (i.e. with budgets on the order of billions)?

The one I originally cited, which was arguing against private prisons, conceded that private prisons were nominally $5,000/yr cheaper than public prisons, but taking the 90-extra-days (on average) spent at private facilities into account incurs a "value of freedom" cost, which they have estimated at $1,000 per sentence. The paper they were paraphrasing[0] from claims, "delayed release erodes half of the cost savings offered by private contracting". In other words, the other half of the cost savings are still intact.

Or there's this Brookings paper[1], which is a little more in your favor:

> Private prisons cost the state an average of $46.50 per prisoner per day in 2012, while the state’s comparable public facilities ranged from $35.11 to $40.47.

Taking the smallest state figure, the private prison is 32% higher; the largest state figure, and the private prison is 15% higher, neither of which are 2-3x more.

[0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2523238

[1] https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_2016...