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

Working on databases from prison

turso.tech

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 567 posts

Re: Working on databases from prison

#501

Post by vasco »

exoverito wrote: post #491
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no such thing as a "homogeneous population". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realistic_conflict_theory#Robb... > From the study, they determined that because the groups were created to be approximately equal, individual differences are not necessary or responsible for intergroup conflict to occur. > Lutfy Diab repeated the experiment with 18 boys from Beirut. The 'Blue Ghost' and 'Red Genies' groups each contai…

Continuum fallacy. Might as well claim that there's no such thing as blue or violet, since there's a gradient between them. Also you can establish homogeneity using genetic analysis such as the fixation index. Unsurprisingly, Swedes and Finns are extremely closely related. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_index#Autosomal_genet... There are many possible metrics to measure heterogeneity, such as linguistic and r…

As another point to your argument, if there's no homogeneity then there's also no diversity, which would be the minimization of homogeneity.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#502

Post by imtringued »

ipaddr wrote: post #409
tux3 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 litt…

Evil is a religious concept. Selling drugs isn't evil. Not selling drug doesn't make you good. People take drugs for various reasons. If a doctor sells them they are good but if someone else sells them they are evil? The person buying could have been fired and can't afford Doctors prescription so the person selling could be an angel.

Fentanyl takes the fun out of drugs and since its laced in every street drug these days it means that no drug is safe anymore.

It cannot be understated how harmful fentanyl is and how low quality of a drug it is. Low quality as in the high sucks.

(I've never taken drugs and I don't drink)

Re: Working on databases from prison

#504

Post by const_cast »

koolba wrote: post #436
gabeio wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you focus on rehabilitation and not just punishment From a book I recently read on the subject they seem not just to focus on rehab and lack of punishment. If there are disputes with others within the facilities the ones in the dispute must sit down and talk through their issues and find a resolution. This helps ingrain proper anger management & helps re-acclimate them to normal society where violence is rarel…

[flagged]

Ugh, homogeneous population is overrated. When you remove axis of discrimination from humans they just go down a level or too and use that as the basis for prejudice.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#505

Post by const_cast »

mp05 wrote: post #380
BlarfMcFlarf wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Prisons should cost society money. If you are taking away someone’s freedoms, there should be a high cost so you don’t do it flippantly when another solution will work.

Wow. No, they forfeited their freedoms and we're put away by due process, but if that's your point of view then we've nothing further to discuss. Incredible stuff on HN these days.

For starters this is just a complete non-comment. I mean there's no substance here.

And secondly, he has a good point. We don't want to make locking people up easy or cheap. It should be high-friction, it should take a long time, and it should cost the government lots and lots of money.

Why? Incentives. The government has no reason to prevent crime if locking people up is cheap. It's made even worse by the promise of cheap or free labor. Then, you run into issues where the government actually wants people to fail and do crime, so they can extract labor from them. We see this quite aggressively in some southern states like Georgia. A remnant of Jim Crow era America.

But, if prison is expensive, the government will be incentivized to put some of that money into crime prevention programs. Things like homeless shelters, food banks, job programs.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#506

Post by const_cast »

zaphar wrote: post #256
TulliusCicero wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, 15-30 years seems like an insane amount of time for drug possession. Even if the amount implied dealing, that still seems really high. Don't people typically get less than that for sexual assault or armed robbery?

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…

A pack of cigarettes is enough nicotine to kill a grown man. Provided you smoke them all at once.

It's a bad measurement.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#507

Post by const_cast »

brulard wrote: post #430
tristan957 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we pay people 40 cents an hour just to say they aren't slaves, they they are slaves for all intents and purposes. They are put in poor working conditions working for for-profit companies, making much less than minimum wage. How is it legal for the State to not provide sunscreen or shade for inmates doing outdoor manual labor? https://theappeal.org/louisiana-prisoners-demand-an-end-to-m...

A prisoner costs taxpayers around $50k a year on average in US. If their "take-home" wage is $0.40/h, it may still be generous.

That cost should be taken by our government and the tax payer, as a disincentive to locking people up.

If you can lock someone up and get close to free labor for it, then we're going to start locking a lot of people up. I mean, it's free labor. Which is why we used to give people 20 years for possession of marijuana. What, you think it's just a coincidence we were throwing primarily black Americans away in prison for ludicrous amounts of time where they'll spend their days picking cotton?

That's what happens when imprisoning people is cheap.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#508

Post by const_cast »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #134
b0a04gl wrote: post #50

what if prison ends up becoming the most distraction-free dev environment. no meetings, no slack pings, no linkedin recruiters, just you, a terminal, and 10 years of uninterrupted focus. kinda terrifying how productive that sounds

What are disadvantages of living in prison?

You're essentially designated a human of lesser value, which means nobody really cares about you. If guards harm or sexually assault you, nobody cares. If other prisoners harm or sexually assault you, nobody cares. If you get sick, nobody cares. You will not receive good care in any sense of the word. If you have mental health issues, may God have mercy on your soul.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#509

Post by cess11 »

rangestransform wrote: post #421
cess11 wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You don't get to do a little crime, as a treat" Why not? I much prefer a society in which I can get away with some crimes to one where every crime is prosecuted.

Discretionary enforcement is just used as a way to disguise discrimination Perhaps our laws would be fairer and simpler if enforcement were draconian and uniform

Only a minuscule portion of actual crime comes to the attention of the state.

Re: Working on databases from prison

#510

Post by hoseja »

philjohn wrote: post #401
mlissner wrote: post #87

Maine's remote work program is an incredibly promising development to prevent recidivism. The amazing thing about it is that it gives real jobs to prisoners that they can seamlessly continue after they get out of prison. Normally when you get out, it's impossible to get a job, and the clock is ticking. This leads to desperation, which leads to bad behavior. There is a real risk of exploitation, but if it's properly m…

Yep - turns out the Nordic countries had it right all along. When you focus on rehabilitation and not just punishment you get lower redicivism rates. Who would have thought it?

Up to a point.
Post reply on HN