"Software Bug Keeping Hundreds of Inmates in Arizona Prisons Beyond Release Dates" - No, it is bureaucracy and corruption that is Keeping Hundreds of Inmates in Arizona Prisons Beyond Release Dates, and anyone who has the remotest idea about how such contracts are awarded knows why.
Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
201–210 of 434 posts
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#202Happened to me! Probably wasn't a software error, and it was only for a day. But it was in Seattle, and they simply forgot me. No one brought food (even though my cellmate got it), no one acknowledged it, no one answered when I tried to get the officers' attention, no one ever had an explanation. Not fun.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re overlooking something else. America has an unbelievable number of prisoners, which makes more careful and humane management effectively impossible. Estimates are that we’ve got about 2% of the US population in prison or somewhere else in the correctional system (pre-trial detention, probation, parole, etc.), the labor required to treat these people like humans isn’t available. And arguably by the point where y…
The US has a specific exemption to the prohibition of slavery for incarcerated individuals in our constitution. I think there are many powerful people in our country with a vested interest in keeping the prison-slave-labor pipeline flowing.
Grandmaster: Revolution? How did this happen?
Topaz: Don't know. But the Arena's mainframe for the Obedience Disks have been deactivated and the slaves have armed themselves.
Grandmaster: Ohhh! I don't like that word!
Topaz: Mainframe?
Grandmaster: No. Why would I not like "mainframe?" No, the "S" word!
Topaz: Sorry, the "prisoners with jobs" have armed themselves.
Grandmaster: Okay, that's better.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
We know exactly how to fix it. Our cowardly politicians and toothless regulatory agencies are not up for the challenge. For every piece of software that can directly and materially harm someone's life like this, there should be a chain of responsibility. And within that chain, there should be legal recourse and, in most cases, penal consequences, especially in the case of inadequate software quality/testing/validatio…
If there’s penal consequences for bad software, you can bet that the development cost will easily 10x overnight.
I wouldn’t work on such software.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#205This is an outrage. It is also a perfect example of how software is used to create increasingly more elaborate and faceless bureaucracies that force individuals to spend more and more time contending with them. Somehow software has become the ultimate vehicle for bureaucratic violence. Software is simultaneously infallible and the perfect scapegoat. The inmate who lost their phone privileges for 30 days is an example…
> It is also a perfect example of how software is used to create increasingly more elaborate and faceless bureaucracies that force individuals to spend more and more time contending with them.
You are attacking the wrong target. It's the government that's broken. This kind of outrage can happen just as easily with pencil and paper. The root cause is the lack of accountability and desire to make the government function better.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#206This is an outrage. It is also a perfect example of how software is used to create increasingly more elaborate and faceless bureaucracies that force individuals to spend more and more time contending with them. Somehow software has become the ultimate vehicle for bureaucratic violence. Software is simultaneously infallible and the perfect scapegoat. The inmate who lost their phone privileges for 30 days is an example…
We know exactly how to fix it. Our cowardly politicians and toothless regulatory agencies are not up for the challenge. For every piece of software that can directly and materially harm someone's life like this, there should be a chain of responsibility. And within that chain, there should be legal recourse and, in most cases, penal consequences, especially in the case of inadequate software quality/testing/validatio…
It’s not the software makers who are committing the crimes. It’s the people abdicating responsibility to software. You can’t wipe your hands of releasing a prisoner on schedule by delegation that to software. The software can help you with your task, but if it’s brought to your attention that there’s a mistake, your failure to promptly fix it is on you.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there’s penal consequences for bad software, you can bet that the development cost will easily 10x overnight.
Is there a better option? This is software that has to 100% work in order to be trusted. If the software cannot be trusted, additional process has to fill in to verify the decisions the software is making. There's no way to deliver a good solution cheaply.
All software has bugs. This is the mantra we are taught and for a good reason.
The answer is human oversight.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
In this case, the requirements should be as simple as implement the law.
"Implement the law" in a software product is as utopian as replacing judges with computers that "implement the law". Now does it makes sense why it is not possible?
Perhaps software isn't the right place to implement the law?
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#209This is an outrage. It is also a perfect example of how software is used to create increasingly more elaborate and faceless bureaucracies that force individuals to spend more and more time contending with them. Somehow software has become the ultimate vehicle for bureaucratic violence. Software is simultaneously infallible and the perfect scapegoat. The inmate who lost their phone privileges for 30 days is an example…
I am not sure how software bug is the exclusive enabler since it is plausible as well for administration bug to occur with pen and paper along with the compliant warden.
It's not that software is the exclusive enabler. It is that software is the ideal enabler because of its ability to create a truly faceless entity that seems to exist outside the power of even those who administer it. Of course these issues were always possible without software. Software is just so much more efficient and useful for creating these kinds of issues because it can scale and because it can be the scapegoat.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#210This is an outrage. It is also a perfect example of how software is used to create increasingly more elaborate and faceless bureaucracies that force individuals to spend more and more time contending with them. Somehow software has become the ultimate vehicle for bureaucratic violence. Software is simultaneously infallible and the perfect scapegoat. The inmate who lost their phone privileges for 30 days is an example…
We know exactly how to fix it. Our cowardly politicians and toothless regulatory agencies are not up for the challenge. For every piece of software that can directly and materially harm someone's life like this, there should be a chain of responsibility. And within that chain, there should be legal recourse and, in most cases, penal consequences, especially in the case of inadequate software quality/testing/validatio…
At what point do you feel the developers - the ones who actually wrote the code - should be held legally responsible for that code's execution?