Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
1–10 of 434 posts
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#2That article just kept getting worse and worse. They mention assigning a penalty to the wrong inmate and they couldn't fix it.
All of a sudden that person could no longer make calls for 30 days, and they did nothing wrong to get that.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#3It's like gov system don't even have test cases. They should, and they should be public. Why aren't these softwares for the public open source?
See also: employment security sites, cannabis track and trace, driving license, etc.
Some of these bugs cause direct financial harm to citizens and this one is much worse!
Show me the test cases! Show me the code!!
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#4That article just kept getting worse and worse. They mention assigning a penalty to the wrong inmate and they couldn't fix it. All of a sudden that person could no longer make calls for 30 days, and they did nothing wrong to get that.
“Show me the incentives, I’ll show you the outcome.”
If corrections staff were held personally liable for these failures, or the local jurisdiction faced steep financial penalties, it wouldn’t happen. No liability, no responsibility.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#5I'd hesitate to call this a software bug, this is a complete breakdown of planning.
FTA - "“Currently this calculation is not in ACIS at all,” the report states. “ACIS can calculate 1 earned credit for every 6 days served, but this is a new calculation.”"
tldr; a new law was passed that allowed for a different credit schedule for days served, and the system hasn't been updated to make that calculation.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#6This isn't a "bug". The problem is the software was not designed to do this and needs to be updated to support a change in requirements
Bugs are when software does something it isn't supposed to, or doesn't do something it is supposed to. In this case, it's doing exactly what it was intended to do when it was implemented and put into service. Since then things have changed, so the vendor needs to implement the feature request, not "fix the bug", but this takes time.
> They estimated fixing the SB1310 bug would take roughly 2,000 additional programming hours.
wtf?
Guessing they estimated 1 person-year, but that's absurdly high.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#7This isn't a "bug". The problem is the software was not designed to do this and needs to be updated to support a change in requirements Bugs are when software does something it isn't supposed to, or doesn't do something it is supposed to. In this case, it's doing exactly what it was intended to do when it was implemented and put into service. Since then things have changed, so the vendor needs to implement the featur…
Pay the money or the inmates stay in prison for longer... weird hostage negotiation but okay...
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#8It's like gov system don't even have test cases. They should, and they should be public. Why aren't these softwares for the public open source? See also: employment security sites, cannabis track and trace, driving license, etc. Some of these bugs cause direct financial harm to citizens and this one is much worse! Show me the test cases! Show me the code!!
If my tax $ goes to it, it should have source available (excepting natsec). it would be nice to get some value out of it. If it's well written, I could learn how a large scale project works. If not, I can have something to petition and voice my concerns about, inform about vulns, etc.
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#9It's like gov system don't even have test cases. They should, and they should be public. Why aren't these softwares for the public open source? See also: employment security sites, cannabis track and trace, driving license, etc. Some of these bugs cause direct financial harm to citizens and this one is much worse! Show me the test cases! Show me the code!!
[deleted]
Re: Whistleblowers: Software keeping inmates in Arizona prisons beyond release dates
#10The fact that they appear to have identified individuals who should be released, but have not, due to the software not being updated, is frankly disgusting.
I believe holding a person against their will is a criminal act - seems like most of the employees of the Arizona correctional facilities are now guilty of crimes worse than the majority of their inmates.