I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010) • Hacker News Board

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#171

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:10 PM UTC

nandemo wrote: post #76

rayiner wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Constitution plays an outsized role in the U.S. because our voting populace is quite a bit more conservative than our intellectual elite. Our veneration for the Constitution is why, e.g. bans on interracial marriage were eliminated in 1967 with a Supreme Court case instead of in the 1990s when public support for interracial marriage crossed the 50% line. It's why abortion isn't illegal in roughly one third of the…

> instead of in the 1990s when public support for interracial marriage crossed the 50% line. WTF. http://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-wh...

Oh you have no idea. I was walking through super-liberal downtown San Francisco a few years ago with my wife (I'm caucasian, she's asian) when some officious-looking guy walked up to me and said 'I'm going to have to issue you a warning' like he was giving me a traffic ticket.

I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly and was about to cross the street so I did that and then looked at the piece of paper, expecting maybe some some religious admonition. Instead it was a fake legal document saying I'd been identified as a 'race traitor.'

Speech like this is arguably not constitutionally protected by the first amendment, despite popular misconceptions to the contrary. But breaches of the peace have to be enforced by the police; there is no private right of action. This leads to obvious problems where ethnic minorities or members of other protected classes are subject to abuse and local authorities are unsympathetic, a tension reflected in the state/federal legal divide.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/fighting-words/

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#172

Post by adekok » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

kerbalspacepro wrote: post #158

adekok wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blacks are dismissed as violent thugs, who are the fault of their own problems. Black men are dismissed... as are most men, TBH. The incidence of incarceration goes: black men, white men, black women, white women. Also, rich tends to beat poor, even considering race. e.g. O.J. Simpson. https://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/features/Pages/starr_g... Men tend to get 63% larger sentences than women. And that differenc…

Do men commit more crimes than women?

If only there was a study which explained this... or maybe an "internet search engine" where you could find references.

I'll summarize for the lazy: taking everything else into account, men get 63% longer sentences for the same crime than women do.

If you look at crimes: http://law.jrank.org/pages/1250/Gender-Crime-Differences-bet...

About 80% are committed by men.

But 93% of inmates are men: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_gende...

There are any number of explanations for this. The most honest and rational explanations don't involve making men "bad" and women "good".

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#173

Post by BlackjackCF » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #7

Honestly, I find the US prison system absolutely horrifying in all respects. As satisfying as it may be for victims to feel the person that did something to them is 'gone' they will eventually be let out, and when they do I want them to be ready to integrate with society. Recidivism rates in the US show it is objectively not working, with state prisons leaving inmates to re-offend 76% of the time. [1] In Norway, much…

Something's rotten when you have for-profit prisons: https://www.aclu.org/banking-bondage-private-prisons-and-mas....

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#174

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

jernfrost wrote: post #105

jMyles wrote: post #4

The prison system in general, and solitary confinement (and other forms of emotional torture) in particular is a good enough reason in my opinion to dismantle the state and start over. And it's only one of about 4-5 good reasons right now. Let's do it.

How about reform? Revolutions have never worked. They just lead to more violence. I think the problem is that there are too many problems in the US and people focus on too many issues rather than focusing on the underlying issues. Little can happen until the election system is changed. Hence one needs to vote in politicians who will change it. To make that happen more young people and minorities need to vote. That me…

I think you'll find that most Americans think one particular revolution worked really well. So do most people who live in countries that gained independence from colonialism, and the French have practically made it a way of life (that's a joke, OK).

Reform and incrementalism are great when there's a broad institutional consensus, but when institutions are widely considered to be corrupt then a rewrite may be better than a refactor. The downsides of revolution are obvious: chaos, violence, unpredictability. But if one honestly accounts for the institutionalized versions in which those conditions are systemically imposed upon unwilling participants, the inevitable conclusion is that social upheaval and a reboot are a price that is sometimes worth paying.

Insofar as enough people feel they have nothing to lose, the economic incentives make it inevitable.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#175

Post by DavidFlint » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #7

Honestly, I find the US prison system absolutely horrifying in all respects. As satisfying as it may be for victims to feel the person that did something to them is 'gone' they will eventually be let out, and when they do I want them to be ready to integrate with society. Recidivism rates in the US show it is objectively not working, with state prisons leaving inmates to re-offend 76% of the time. [1] In Norway, much…

Prisons (especially private ones) should be getting a huge incentive for prisoners that do not come back like 3-5 years delayed grant or something.

This might have resolved a lot of issues with the current system.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#176

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:29 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #14

jMyles wrote: post #4

The prison system in general, and solitary confinement (and other forms of emotional torture) in particular is a good enough reason in my opinion to dismantle the state and start over. And it's only one of about 4-5 good reasons right now. Let's do it.

...And replace it with what?

Fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#177

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:31 PM UTC

okreallywtf wrote: post #121

nether wrote: post #62

This is the worst of racism. The next time a white HNer tells PoC to just turn the other cheek toward racist words, point them to this. Racist attitudes are what enable horrific crimes against blacks, such as these.

This is why the of the alt-right and mens-rights and conservative christians fucking terrify me. Somehow, while making slow steady progress a seemingly large swath of people have gotten the idea that things are exactly backwards. As far as they are concerned, whites, males and Christians are under attack and are now lashing out at minorities, women, and non-Christians as if they are "turning the tide" rather than con…

gmail me

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#178

Post by loa_in_ » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:46 PM UTC

cuckcuckspruce wrote: post #57

hellcow wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right. Looking for a solution here, the central problem with the US prison system seems to be the incentive structure. Private prisons are paid based on how many inmates they have. Prisons are therefore incentivized to keep people as long as possible, and ensure that if a convict is ever released, that person commits another crime quickly and winds up back in prison. Instead, what if the state paid…

I think you're being a little naive here. If you could wave a magic wand and make it so private prisons got a one-time fee for accepting convicts then I don't think they would invest more in preventing recidivism. What would likely happen is that private prisons would spend even less on each inmate, doing the accounting to determine how much they have to cut from what they already spend to account for the amount of t…

You seem to have missed the part when he writes about high penalization of recidivism.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#179

Post by nthcolumn » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:47 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #7

Honestly, I find the US prison system absolutely horrifying in all respects. As satisfying as it may be for victims to feel the person that did something to them is 'gone' they will eventually be let out, and when they do I want them to be ready to integrate with society. Recidivism rates in the US show it is objectively not working, with state prisons leaving inmates to re-offend 76% of the time. [1] In Norway, much…

Where is this North Korea? This isn't about crime. He was a political prisoner.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#180

Post by merpnderp » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 9:48 PM UTC

pillowkusis wrote: post #26

arcticbull wrote: post #7

Honestly, I find the US prison system absolutely horrifying in all respects. As satisfying as it may be for victims to feel the person that did something to them is 'gone' they will eventually be let out, and when they do I want them to be ready to integrate with society. Recidivism rates in the US show it is objectively not working, with state prisons leaving inmates to re-offend 76% of the time. [1] In Norway, much…

the challenge is that literally nobody is incentivized to make changes to this system. the situation is really bad for politicians. A politican voting to reform a clearly broken prison system faces tons of risks to their career. Even one wrong vote for improving the prison system will get you labeled as "soft on crime," a dangerous liability for Democrats and nearly a death sentence for Republicans. Every change you…

Oklahoma just passed a ballet referendum to scale back punishments for drug related and petty crimes. The state legislature has basically overruled a clear majority of the vote at the behest of the public unions who are deeply invested in maintaining the jobs of their members and damn the cost in ruined lives.