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Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

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Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#251
post #113

I really think the point is not how long it might take someone to learn how to use tools, but the impacts of prison. I work with these folks through my company to help them become employed upon release. A few things, it is astounding but believable that when people are released they enter a world that is entirely unknown to them. Not only technology but their relationships and neighborhoods are completely different.…

> justice involved individuals Is that PC for "ex cons"?

Yes

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US prison system is all about punishment not rehabilitation. Theres a very strong “lock them up and throw away the key” mentality in many Americans view of justice.

Rehabilitation works for those handful of cases where a mother had to steal food to feed a baby, and wasn't a career criminal. I don't have any hope nor interest in try to "rehabilitate" rapists, murderers or child molesters. I don't even want them locked up for life, that's a waste of money and isn't enough punishment. I want the problem solved, I want them to get the death penalty.

Giving prosecutors the ability to request the death penalty requires us to put our utmost trust in them to follow due process and ensure a fair trial for each and every defendant. I absolutely do not trust them with that responsibility - time and time again, we hear about corrupt district attorneys who care more about their campaigns and conviction rates than actually meting out justice. Look no further than the US's historically rich track record of wrongful execution, particularly when it comes to minorities.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rehabilitation works for those handful of cases where a mother had to steal food to feed a baby, and wasn't a career criminal. I don't have any hope nor interest in try to "rehabilitate" rapists, murderers or child molesters. I don't even want them locked up for life, that's a waste of money and isn't enough punishment. I want the problem solved, I want them to get the death penalty.

Giving prosecutors the ability to request the death penalty requires us to put our utmost trust in them to follow due process and ensure a fair trial for each and every defendant. I absolutely do not trust them with that responsibility - time and time again, we hear about corrupt district attorneys who care more about their campaigns and conviction rates than actually meting out justice. Look no further than the US's…

What is the percentage of wrongful executions? And it says nothing about the pros and cons of the death penalty itself. We should always strive to improve the Justice system which should minimize any wrongful condemnation.

>particularly when it comes to minorities. Given how much they are so overrepresented in commiting crimes, I don't even know how you can minimize that beyond just keep improving the system, regardless of the sentence.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#254

This can also be a problem for homeless people. If you are homeless and digitally savvy, the internet and a tablet or smartphone or laptop or even library card can be huge, huge assets that make homelessness vastly less burdensome. But for some homeless people, job hunting is a nightmare because they don't have the internet savvy and, on top of that, they don't own a laptop and they may not know they can get access t…

I've been going through something similar with my Mum recently. She's on the verge of homelessness and has a disability. In Australia, her job provider is supposed to help her find a job given her current situation. She has been there for nearly 4 year and no one there has been able to find her a job (I only just learned of this and have helped her to move from her current agency to another one that seems better equiped to help her)

But, because she has no income (she is left with about $40 a fortnight after government assistance) she has had to cut off her internet connection, phone connection, and her ageing laptop of nearly 10 years has also completely died.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn of this until just a few years ago, but even in that small gap of a few years between where she was able to still afford all of these vital services and bits of equipment and use them perfectly fine and by the time she couldn't, she grew completely disillusioned with technology and has an extremely difficult time in using even basic smart phones. On top of that, it is almost impossible for her to apply for jobs through this device. Trying to teach her how to write up a cover letter on the Google Docs Android app was impossible.

It has really opened my eyes and taught me to be a lot more patient and empathetic with people struggling with modern technology. It feels like a lot of these improvements are supposed to make our lives easier, for for a few, it does nothing but make it harder and I don't know how to solve this problem or if it even can be. Are these people just to be left behind?

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving prosecutors the ability to request the death penalty requires us to put our utmost trust in them to follow due process and ensure a fair trial for each and every defendant. I absolutely do not trust them with that responsibility - time and time again, we hear about corrupt district attorneys who care more about their campaigns and conviction rates than actually meting out justice. Look no further than the US's…

What is the percentage of wrongful executions? And it says nothing about the pros and cons of the death penalty itself. We should always strive to improve the Justice system which should minimize any wrongful condemnation. >particularly when it comes to minorities. Given how much they are so overrepresented in commiting crimes, I don't even know how you can minimize that beyond just keep improving the system, regardl…

> What is the percentage of wrongful executions?

Anything above 0% is too much

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#256
post #162

I remember my grandfather asking me why the newspaper website went down when he pressed the up button and up when he pressed the down button. I had no answer. And it was the only thing keeping him not bored as he spent a year in American suburbs, away from the warmth of whole community he's lived with all his life. It's hard for us realize all the random things we've learned over the years to live in the digital era.

I'm guessing this was on a Mac. Apple calls it "Natural scroll direction". If so, go to the Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Mouse and uncheck the box labeled "scroll direction: Natural".

Parent did not write anything about a mouse.

Up/down arrow keys work like this on every notable browser, every notable platform. Up arrow makes the content go down.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#257
post #18

Clearly wherever this is (US?) prisons are not about rehabilitation and inclusion back into society. Weren't there any classes? Books? Library? Computer rooms? It's complete failure of a justice system if person comes out of prison like from a time capsule. IMHO it may just increase recidivism - what can a person do in a "free" world if he/she were not let to know about the world outside prison walls?

Budgets are stretched thin as it is. They have only three ways to spend the taxpayers' money for prisons: More walls, more bars, more guards. My uncle wrote the state senate two times a week for years requesting funds, they couldn't ignore him forever. But getting out, he couldn't believe how fast things move on the outside, like the world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#258
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Not sure why you got downvoted here" Some patriots probably got offended.

Please don't unnecessarily bring politics into the discussion. (It wasn't me, I don't have enough karma to downvote.)

This is just too rich. I am not the one who brought politics here. This would be more properly directed to the people who start political topics. And there are plenty of these topics on HN.

Looking at this disproportional reaction it feels like we have stakeholders here.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#259

I'm sure many people here have experienced frustration helping older relatives or friends use computers. Recently though, I realized, that computers are just way too hard to use. In our pursuit to avoid cryptic black screens with command prompts, a user must now understand that their computer has Windows with all of its menus and functions, a browser window with all of its menus and functions, running a webapp, with…

I feel like someone should try to start from scratch and design a phone interface that any elderly person would be perfectly comfortable using and understanding. And then sell it to the rest of us as well.

That interface already exists, even those elderly people will mostly understand a phone with physical buttons and a numerical pad.

But once you remove the physical buttons everything becomes much less intuitive and hinges way more on proper UI design in addition to making a lot of assumptions about a users knowledge on touch controls.

Re: Out of prison after 30 years and people telling him to find forms on the web

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember that one of Spider Robinson's Callahan's crosstime saloon stories ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callahan%27s_Crosstime_Saloon ) had a similar situation with a guy getting back from being a prisoner of war or in prison in solitary for a couple of decades and being in effect a stranded time traveler (somewhat fuzzy on the details as I read it probably about 40 years ago - ironically enough) I also recall t…

Somebody please identify this story!

Yes, it’s ”The time traveler”, first published in Analog, April 1974. Reprinted in the collection “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon”, and in the meta-collection “The Callahan Chronicals”. Is shows how much cultural shift can take place in a decade: the protagonist is taken prisoner in 1963 and returns to a changed society in 1973. Highly recommended!
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