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My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

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Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#591

In Germany I was asked to provide my criminal record while working at a payment processing startup that had to obtain certain certificates. They were probably looking for crimes of a fiscal nature however, which is understandable. Second chances are second chances but security is mostly about trust. Another job at a startup in Germany that worked in less tightly controlled spaces has never asked me to produce my crim…

What crimes are applicable to software engineers, then? I don't think there are any laws punishing you from writing bad code, nor are there laws addressing data theft or security misconfigurations. GDPR applies against companies and not individual people, as far as I can tell. Would the only valid crimes be related to computer hacking?

Scrollbar hijacking should be 20 years to life.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#592
post #489
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But only about 10% of prisoners are in Federal custody. Among those in state prisons, drug possession is about 3% of cases (about equal to DUI plus fraud cases). Other drug charges make up about 10%.

> in state prisons, drug possession is about 3% of cases You're going to need to source that unbelievably low number. In my state, drug crimes represent the second largest proportion of prison inmates - a bit fewer than criminal sexual conduct a bit more than homicide: https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Adult%20Prison%20Population%20Summ...

Source is [1], 45k / 1290k for drug possession (and nothing harder), plus 145k for other drug charges (which I guess is closer to 11% not 10% as I said).

Minnesota's 17% isn't that far off the national number it seems. They don't give a breakdown for simple possession. Violent crimes at 55% are again a majority.

[1] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#593
post #372

Hey, posting anonymously here since this hits close to home; as I'm also a felon. I learned to program _after_ all my legal troubles started, and my sentence wasn't _nearly_ as long as this (6 months, drug crime). I 100% honestly feel like tech saved my life. My first job immediately gave me hope that I'm not defined by my past. Went from working in a factory making $7/hr (about 10 yrs ago), to now grossing well over…

Congratulations! I'm with a YC company that helps formerly-incarcerated people with jobs, and would love to talk with you about what you're doing. Like you, we believe that coding and tech can be a potential way to help rentry. Work email is joel@70millionjobs.com.

70M jobs was just the company I was thinking of. Fantastic positive outlook on life and gives people a second chance.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#594
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you said implies that any person that has committed a violent crime remains a danger to other people, forever - and should also be punished, forever. This is what the American justice system is like. In a saner world, (only) people who are a danger to others would be separated from the society, and being set free would be and indication that you are no longer a danger. In the US, being released from prison signa…

Conversely, someone who was already willing to violently attack another person is probably much more likely to do it again?

Most people will attack another person, if sufficiently provoked.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#596
post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move to San Francisco. Employers aren't allowed ask about arrests or conviction on a job application. They aren't allowed to do background checks until they have offered you the job. They can only consider convictions directly related to the job. And if they reject you because of a background check, they must notify you, allow you to respond, and reconsider based on the response. https://sfgov.org/olse/fair-chance-or…

No wonder everyone is shitting on the streets lmao what in the fuck

Please don't do this here.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big difference between "This person should be imprisoned and completely seperated from society" and "I should have the right to not work with violent people". I have no problem with a convicted murderer being released from prison, but I'm not going to invite them over for dinner.

> "I should have the right to not work with violent people" You do have that right, because you can switch jobs at will (unlike that person), in case you don't want to work with someone purely due to their past and not something they are doing at your workplace. I don't think we should be blocking people (who have already paid their dues for the crimes they have committed in the past) from getting a job solely for th…

The other alternative is UBI. So the ex-convicts can be spared from hunger and poverty.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#598

In the US, more than 60% of people released from prison return, and our program alumni continue to prove that the way to stop the cycle is through career opportunities. Many TLM grads have returned home after decades in prison and gotten good jobs in tech. The key is making useful resources like coding classes available to those inside seeking opportunity. By the way - TLM is hiring a Dev Ops & IT Manager, if you wan…

It is great that programming is helping people with criminal record. On the other hand, if you are a programmer , unless you are one of top ones in the world, anyone can compete with you. Someone can switch jobs and take a few months of code bootcamp and become your competitor. Your years of experience only make you less valuable. Anyone can spend a few months learning to code and replace you. The demand for programmers is strong right now but the supply is increasing so fast as even imamates can do it. It is sad on that perspective.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often the judicial system is flat out wrong. In Ireland the prisons are so full everyone gets a slap on the wrist and a suspended sentence for even public endangerment crimes.

Where do the occupants of the full prisons come from then? Are the prisons full of life sentence prisoners from back when they weren't full?

That's a good question which I don't have the answer to. Things used to be less lenient so it would stand to reason that spaces are taken by previous longer sentencees. Ireland doesn't have many spaces to begin with. From wikipedia:

> Prisons and prison population

>There are 12 prisons in the Republic of Ireland with a total bed capacity of 4,106 as of 31 December 2009. The daily average number of prisoners in custody in 2009 was 3,881. However, most of these prisons currently operate at or above capacity.[13] On 25 January 2011 the prison population stood at 4,541. There were about 80 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in October 2015,[11] and in Northern Ireland it was 78 per 100,000 in February 2016.

Re: My friend starts her job today, after learning to program in prison

#600
post #12

70millionjobs is a YC (S17) company that helps people with criminal records get jobs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14911467

It is great that programming is helping people with criminal record. On the other hand, if you are a programmer , unless you are one of top ones in the world, anyone can compete with you. Someone can switch jobs and take a few months of code bootcamp and become your competitor. Your years of experience only make you less valuable. Anyone can spend a few months learning to code and replace you. The demand for programmers is strong right now but the supply is increasing so fast as even imamates can do it. It is sad on that perspective.
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