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Working on databases from prison

turso.tech

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Re: Working on databases from prison

#351

Post by [deleted] »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #279
antihero wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing. Absolutely insane that people are incarcerated so long for non-violent drug crimes, though. Turso also looks really neat for small Payload sites.

Oh absolutely. Voters always favor harsher punishments or making things worse for those already convicted of crimes. You never get any more votes by pushing for lower punishments for any crime or by doing anything to reduce recidivism. I suspect that a pretty solid litmus test for "politician who is actually trying to make the world a better place" based just on how they vote for lowering recidivism.

[deleted]

Re: Working on databases from prison

#352

Post by tux3 »

cortesoft wrote: post #342
badc0ffee wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Non-violent drug crimes" brings to mind hippies selling weed or mushrooms. But this guy was selling carfentanil. I'm not saying he's to blame for the opioid crisis turning street people into shambling zombies, clogging emergency services with overdoses, and causing death, but he certainly played a part.

He played a lot smaller part than the Sackler family, who ran Purdue Pharma and pushed their drugs into communities. They killed a lot more people than this guy, and yet none of them are in jail.

The Sacklers are comfortably above the law and that's a bad thing, but that doesn't make small time carfentanyl operations any less bad

Evil is a threshold, it's not a competition with limited spots

Sometimes big crime families or notorious serial killers get away with it, but it doesn't lower the threshold for anyone else

It doesn't make it any better that someone else is doing even worse. You don't get to do a little crime, as a treat

Re: Working on databases from prison

#353

Post by snickerdoodle12 »

Retric wrote: post #314
snickerdoodle12 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can send phones, knives or alcohol via email or slack?

You can agree to pay for them at a given prices via email or slack. It’s more or less guaranteed that contraband will get into prisons if someone is willing to pay for it. Thus the rules around no cash or phones for prisoners. Inmates are treated very differently by the legal system than regular people. Thirteenth Amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the part…

You can also do that via a butt phone, which are everywhere.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#354

Post by Ray20 »

komali2 wrote: post #44
laufey wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, why would you expect him to be paid less? I know historically pay is bad for prisoners, but if he's working the same hours and is just as productive as any other employee, shouldn't he be paid the same? I could potentially see paying someone less if they were coming in with much less experience than what's usually hired for in the role, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

> but if he's working the same hours and is just as productive as any other employee, shouldn't he be paid the same? He should, but the median salary of engineers in Taiwan is like, 40,000 USD, vs SF which is 160,000 USD. Or London, if one wants to argue something about English language ability or whatever, is 80,000 USD. Literally half that of SF. Salaries aren't determined by labor value, they're determined by how…

> they're determined by how well employers can collude in a region to get the lowest possible rate

Colluding is only one of the factors that influencing the demand for labor. Moreover, in most regions it is a rather insignificant factor. Typically, this is the degree of economic freedom, protection of investments and capitals, the level of regulation and the tax burden in the region, not the degree of colluding.

> good person, but a bad capitalist.

Capitalism is not about evaluative characteristics, but about descriptive ones. It is not "bad capitalists pay a lot, good ones pay the minimum", but about "people tend to pay minimum, so to pay the minimum is expected behavior of capitalists"

Re: Working on databases from prison

#355

Post by BeetleB »

cortesoft wrote: post #342
badc0ffee wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Non-violent drug crimes" brings to mind hippies selling weed or mushrooms. But this guy was selling carfentanil. I'm not saying he's to blame for the opioid crisis turning street people into shambling zombies, clogging emergency services with overdoses, and causing death, but he certainly played a part.

He played a lot smaller part than the Sackler family, who ran Purdue Pharma and pushed their drugs into communities. They killed a lot more people than this guy, and yet none of them are in jail.

Bush and his cronies resulted in the death of far more innocent people than your typical murderer. But we don't stop sending murderers to prison just because Bush/Cheney are not in prison.

I've voted for drug legalization (including possession). However, that doesn't mean that I condone all drug dealing behavior.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#356

Post by sealeck »

Aurornis wrote: post #250
jamesblonde wrote: post #244

The scary thing is that Maine is considered progressive for prison. My former (brilliant) student developed schizophrenia and tried to rob a bank with a gun because the voices told him to do it. He got 10 years in jail. I think every EU country would treat him for his condition until he was safe to rejoin society. In the US, he was thrown in the slammer. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irishman-jailed-for-10-years...

> I think every EU country would treat him for his condition until he was safe to rejoin society. In the US, he was thrown in the slammer. From the article, his parents express frustration at their inability to get him committed for treatment in Ireland. They cite the lack of response there as a key factor in his spiral. Also, the US facility he was sent to did offer psychiatric treatment and the judge urged him to a…

Not everyone is capable of reading an article :)

Re: Working on databases from prison

#357

Post by cycomanic »

ponector wrote: post #340
antihero wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing. Absolutely insane that people are incarcerated so long for non-violent drug crimes, though. Turso also looks really neat for small Payload sites.

[flagged]

And you take personal responsibility if someone innocent is convicted? Once you have executed someone there is no coming back. Or are you saying you're OK with some innocents being killed so you can save some money (taxes)?

Re: Working on databases from prison

#358

Post by [deleted] »

franga2000 wrote: post #317
conductr wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. The cut should support the program itself and then further offset taxpayer expenses related to housing, feeding, and caring for the prisoner. I could even see a case for taking it as a way of ensuring it was saved and returned at release.

Fuck no! Lowering the cost of keeping people in prison would make it even easier for the government to lock people up for smaller crimes and with bigger sentences. It's even worse with the privatised prison system that the US has. They already know the "market price" (what the government is willing to spend) so adding "free money" into the equation just makes it easier for them to raise prices and end up pocketing ev…

[deleted]

Re: Working on databases from prison

#359

Post by jiveturkey »

> preferring instead to spend ~15+ hours a day on projects and open source contributions.

This makes it clear it's not just that the prison provides such opportunities, but that inmates are motivated to take advantage of such. Too many fully law abiding folks spend 15+ hours of screen time just doom scrolling.

There's a real lesson here for similar community services. For folks whose upbringing maybe doesn't afford such advantages, if services can be available where students can find reprieve from harsh daily life and be (very) modestly taken care of, I can see value. At a much lesser level, I benefited enormously from school, church, and community services where I could apply myself, things my family could never afford. So, like school lunches but for practical developer education.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#360

Post by BeetleB »

stickfigure wrote: post #267
zaphar wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. If you are in posession of enough of a controlled substance to kill 300 people I'm kind of okay with a drastic response. For every Preston Thorpe who turns their life around there 100s of others who will just go out and keep endangering lives like this. I think this is a nuanced topic and 10-30 years is too much for drug possession is entirely lacking the necessary nuance to evaluate. Comparison to othe…

"enough of a controlled substance to kill" is an absurd, inflammatory metric. They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers and we have no reason to believe he was trying to kill anyone. He shouldn't be in prison, period.

> They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers and we have no reason to believe he was trying to kill anyone.

People have already addressed the "aware" part, but "willing"? Really? Do you understand how addiction works?

I'd bet a lot of money that they saved some number of lives by catching him. He was engaging in an activity that had a high probability of resulting in some deaths. I can sell knives in a store, and I have a reasonable level of confidence that no one died because of those knives. Here, the probabilities are inverted.

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