Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

salon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 137 posts

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#41

Post by sliverstorm »

SeoxyS wrote: post #27
asveikau wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the right punishment is for that, but the original sentence of 45 years seems too steep. As does 25.

I agree, but that also depends on the offender. In a way, you could make an argument that prison should not have timed sentences, but rather that it should be "you stay until it is deemed that you will not offend again, and that you can be a productive member of society." After all the word "corrections" implies that something should be corrected, not that somebody should be punished.

Do you really want prison times to be completely flexible? There is a lot of potential for abuse there.

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#42

Post by ed209 »

asveikau wrote: post #25
SeoxyS wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you watch the video embedded, you'll see that he actually ran a large network that smuggled cocaine from Miami to Seattle. A little more serious than the kid who sells an 8-ball to his college classmate.

I don't know what the right punishment is for that, but the original sentence of 45 years seems too steep. As does 25.

until you see the many lives destroyed by drugs. from mothers abandoning their children, to ending up homeless and alone, to deaths and murders.

Sure he's just one cog in a giant machine, but he's also responsible for death and hardship as a result of the drugs he moved.

Society in general also carries some of the responsibility, as do those involved in his upbringing. But I know that if my child came to any harm as a result of the drugs he supplied for his own profit I'd want him to be behind bars for that long - or until he was rehabilitated.

"In 2004, 17% of U.S. State prisoners and 18% of Federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-related_crime

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#43

Post by _delirium »

OGinparadise wrote: post #38
asveikau wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So patronizing. I was born in DC; I don't need the Wikipedia article on the crack epidemic. You really think locking people up is what solved that problem?

So patronizing. I was born in DC; I don't need the Wikipedia article on the crack epidemic. Put that on your profile so next time this topic come up we know. Seriously. I didn't know that about you and time and time again posters post something from the past to give context. Context might explain why the "tough on crime" politicians pushed for mandatory sentences even for minor amounts.

I would say that playing to populist fears explains just about everything related to "tough on crime" politicians. It's also curious that the same "tough on crime" politicians seem for the most part surprisingly uninterested in the root causes of crime, such as poverty or lack of access to education.

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#44

Post by draugadrotten »

yareally wrote: post #26
CatMtKing wrote: post #16

http://youtu.be/A1mhhtpmXfo -- last mile in Norway. Instead of condemning inmates, rehabilitate them.

It was Sweden (with a similar system to Norway) where Frank Abagnale[1] (Catch Me If You Can) spent some time and spoke highly of the penal system of the Scandinavian countries. I think he mentioned they were paid a fair wage, able to take real college courses (not just correspondence) and made other attempts at real rehabilitation. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale

The Swedish system tries to rehabilitate prisoners using various evidence-based methods. For some types of prisoners it works very well.

Prisoners are paid but only a few cents per hour. They generally spend it all on buying cigarettes.

The punishments are much lower in Sweden than in the US. Drug smuggling offences and murders carry the longest penalties. I would say on average penalties are a factor 5x or 10x lower. This seems to be good for both criminal and society. Prisoners know they will have a life again after prison so they want to rehabilitate and prepare.

However, the last 10 years of very high immigration from the muslim countres of middle east and north africa is rapidly filling Swedish prisons. The chief of Kumla maximum security facility was recently in the news saying that 80% of his prison are muslim. Politicians don't want to touch the subject out of fears of being branded racist, but it's vividly discussed on the net in forums such as flashback.net

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#45

Post by WA »

ed209 wrote: post #42
asveikau wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the right punishment is for that, but the original sentence of 45 years seems too steep. As does 25.

until you see the many lives destroyed by drugs. from mothers abandoning their children, to ending up homeless and alone, to deaths and murders. Sure he's just one cog in a giant machine, but he's also responsible for death and hardship as a result of the drugs he moved. Society in general also carries some of the responsibility, as do those involved in his upbringing. But I know that if my child came to any harm as…

You make it sound like your children don't have a choice whether to take drugs or not.

You could argue similarly by replacing drugs with anything (legal) that could harm your children. For example, do you blame motorcycle vendors for being responsible for deaths and hardship among the families of motorcyclists?

Drugs and motorcycles are certainly different, but it's a bit too easy to blame drug traffickers or dealers only without taking into consideration the parents and the social circle of the children.

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#47

Post by elux »

CatMtKing wrote: post #16

http://youtu.be/A1mhhtpmXfo -- last mile in Norway. Instead of condemning inmates, rehabilitate them.

>"Maybe prisons in the US should be paid on rehabilitation rate and not incarceration rate."

Credit: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/196pe7/norwegian_...

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#48

Post by crag »

ed209 wrote: post #42
asveikau wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the right punishment is for that, but the original sentence of 45 years seems too steep. As does 25.

until you see the many lives destroyed by drugs. from mothers abandoning their children, to ending up homeless and alone, to deaths and murders. Sure he's just one cog in a giant machine, but he's also responsible for death and hardship as a result of the drugs he moved. Society in general also carries some of the responsibility, as do those involved in his upbringing. But I know that if my child came to any harm as…

"until you see the many lives destroyed by drugs. from mothers abandoning their children, to ending up homeless and alone, to deaths and murders."

And we'd have a hella better handle on it it it were legal. Right now, I can drink myself to death; or get piss-end drunk and smack my partner around; or get piss-end drunk again, hit a ball game and start a fight in the stands - none of these actions would gain me 25 years in jail (though I'd be dead cause my partner would shoot me - and rightly so. :) ).

I can smoke cigarettes which has had one purpose - to addict me (oh and kill me in the process) but I can't smoke a joint in my own home without running a risk that some a-hole walking by will smell the pot and call the cops.

Utterly ridiculous.

Re: After 25 years in jail, the Internet blew my mind

#50

Post by jacquesm »

WalterBright wrote: post #36
aashaykumar92 wrote: post #7

The story is amazing. But what continuously went through my head was how different our world will be 25 years from now. It'll be 2038...what will technology be like? If you take a second to realize what it was 25 years ago, what it is now, and then ask yourself what it WILL be in 25 years...well shit, I was left speechless.

My great-aunt remembers the time the first car arrived in her village in the 1800s. She lived to fly across the Atlantic in a jetliner, and see the moon landings.

She remembers? Wow. That's amazing. How old is she now then?
Post reply on HN