• 516052 (unregistered)

    Since when was this a site for political activism?

    I am not opposed to the occasional discussion veering into the political. But this is flat out activism. And it has nothing to do with the purpose of this site. It does not even have the cover story of a tech WTF.

    It's a betrayal plain and simple.

  • FT (unregistered)
    Comment held for moderation.
  • 516052.1 (unregistered) in reply to 516052

    ++

  • (nodebb) in reply to 516052

    I'm fine with it. I already knew that US prisons were unfit for their intended purpose, now I see one more piece of evidence to support that conclusion.

    I could live in a bubble in which reality never intrudes. But that wouldn't actually be good for me.

    If you want to live in a Matrix-like illusion you're welcome to, but you don't get to complain when you see the glitches as the real world intrudes.

    Thanks for this article Ellis. Much appreciated.

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to 516052
    Comment held for moderation.
  • 516052 (unregistered) in reply to philipstorry

    That's not the point.

    The point is that people do not come here to read political propaganda. And especially not political propaganda about a topic that frankly does not concern the 95.7% of the worlds population that lives outside of the united states.

    And yes, we do on occasion have discussions on politics here in the comments. And I will still continue to do so. But that is different. When we have the occasional discussion like that in the comments that is just one thread among many. The rest of the people here who do not want to read it and do not enjoy it still have the entirety of the rest of the comments AND the actual article to enjoy. Which is what makes it acceptable.

    In this case there is no article to enjoy. There is no rest of the comment section to have fun in. There is only propaganda. And propaganda about something that most of us have absolutely no reason to care about at that.

  • Anon (unregistered)

    Prison abolition is stupidity on a level I can’t really fathom. I don’t come here for brain dead political content. I’ll be removing this site from my RSS feeds and never reading again!

    It would be funny if the comments get censored.

  • (nodebb) in reply to 516052

    And propaganda about something that most of us have absolutely no reason to care about at that.

    I would say that the rest of us do have a reason to care about that: "what if my not-the-USA country sees this and thinks it's a good idea?" That's the reason.

    And it's worth noting the implication that the USA, supposedly the "home of the free" and "leader of the free world", seems poised to lead the rest of us into a pit of surveillance and slavery (forced labour in prisons). Think about that for a moment...

  • Click (unregistered)

    The site is called the Daily WTF and of all the articles I've read here, this is the one that really made me think WTF.

  • Fikitus (unregistered)

    Thoughts:

    • While the topic is worthy of debate and prison operations should be improved and focused on societal reinsertion (depending on the crime), prisons SHOULD NOT be abolished. The main point is isolating the criminal from the rest of society, right beside punishment fitting the crime. What would society do with criminals then, slap on the wrist, stern scolding and go to your room without dessert?
    • Inmate labor IS NOT slavery: they should be earning their keep and even earning money for their families. Heck: labor, along with training should even be part of the societal reinsertion!
    • WTF is this article doing in thedailywtf? This IS NOT an activism website but a semi-humorous IT anecdotes website. It is as including cooking recipes in the phone book (remember those?) or medical advise in technical specs.

    Don't repeat. You are on probation now.

  • Fikitus (unregistered)

    Thoughts:

    • While the topic is worthy of debate and prison operations should be improved and focused on societal reinsertion (depending on the crime), prisons SHOULD NOT be abolished. The main point is isolating the criminal from the rest of society, right beside punishment fitting the crime. What would society do with criminals then, slap on the wrist, stern scolding and go to your room without dessert?
    • Inmate labor IS NOT slavery: they should be earning their keep and even earning money for their families. Heck: labor, along with training should even be part of the societal reinsertion!
    • WTF is this article doing in thedailywtf? This IS NOT an activism website but a semi-humorous IT anecdotes website. It is as including cooking recipes in the phone book (remember those?) or medical advise in technical specs.

    Don't repeat. You are on probation now.

  • 516052 (unregistered) in reply to Steve_The_Cynic

    I would say that the rest of us do have a reason to care about that: "what if my not-the-USA country sees this and thinks it's a good idea?" That's the reason.

    You are working off many far fetched assumptions there. First being that they would. And second that this is a bad thing. And both are a stretch. After all, of all the stupid, idiotic and evil things we in the civilized world have copied the americans, and there are many, their criminal justice and prison system is not one of them.

    And even if we were to import this particular custom I fail to see the harm. Prison, after all, is not a place where you send good honest people for a well earned vacation. Quite the opposite.

    And it's worth noting the implication that the USA, supposedly the "home of the free" and "leader of the free world", seems poised to lead the rest of us into a pit of surveillance and slavery (forced labour in prisons). Think about that for a moment... Everyone with a shred of brain sees america as what it is, just another evil empire driving us toward a capitalist dystopia where the average man is enslaved to the capitalist overlords.

    "America does evil thing" is about as newsworthy as "water is wet". It's just one of those things that you no longer even care about because they are the default law of nature.

  • 516052 (unregistered)

    Also, sorry for the quote tags being messed up. I do not know how that happened. I must be slipping with age.

  • no (unregistered) in reply to 516052

    in europe, we hear every single day about the right looking to the US for oppressive policies to copy. some are funded by the likes of the heritage foundation, others are useful idiots who are merely influenced by them.

    learning what prisons look like in the US gives us examples of how things can go wrong and can be motivating to fight for a more just society. when someone starts floating ideas that go after the already few rights prisoners have, we can call these ideas out as utterly unacceptable. being informed allows us to recognize and shut down attempts at shifting the overton window to allow for discussion of inhumane and harmful policies, even beyond the topic of prisons. preventing the status quo from slipping into something even worse requires constant vigilance.

    learning about how prisoners are treated should motivate people to fight for prison abolition.
    we should not get to close our eyes at cruelty only because it is happening on the other side of an ocean.

  • no (unregistered) in reply to 516052
    Comment held for moderation.
  • 516052 (unregistered)

    And what will you do with evil people if you abolish prisons? Kill them? Deport them to Australia? Ask them politely to stop being mean?

    Prisons exist as a place for society to dump those who have proven them self to be harmful to it and keep them in a place where they can not cause harm to the rest of us without having to suffer the guilt that comes with more permanent solutions. They are, in short, the recycle bin of society. You can not abolish them without replacing them with something else that does the same job.

  • no (unregistered)

    it is no longer possible to pretend like technology is non‐political. every system has its impact on the world and it’s about time we as engineers took responsibility for the things we take part in building. working on something like this should not be able to be treated like any other tech job and described as merely a living.

  • Lothar (unregistered)

    I'm surprised to see that people are surprised that people in jail are essentially treated like slaves. That's what the 13th amendment is saying: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

  • 516052 (unregistered) in reply to no

    A good blacksmith cares not if the axe he crafts is used to chop through wood or necks, only that it is sharp.

  • Darren (unregistered) in reply to Fikitus

    While I do agree that training for prisoners should be part of their rehabilitation, I also think that forced prison labour is essentially slavery and they shouldn't be forced to pay for their keep.

    If someone has committed acts that society (in the wider sense) has judged to be so wrong that said person needs to be removed from society for a period of time, then you cannot ask them to pay for the privilege of being removed. Forcing them to work for their keep is indebted servitude.

    What we see in the US prison system are all the reasons why running prisons as a for-profit enterprise is such a terrible idea. It becomes solely about filling the beds and punishing people. It completely missed the rehabilitation part of the social contract. Without rehabilitation (in whatever form), you're never going to stop recidivism. You just create a revolving door of people going to prison, leaving prison, going back to prison, leaving prison...

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