Slashdot Mirror
Cyber-criminal Left In Charge of Prison Computer Network
samzenpus writes "A 27-year-old man serving six years for stealing £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet was recruited to help write code needed for the installation of an internal prison TV station. He was left unguarded with unfettered access to the system and produced results that anyone but prison officials could have guessed. He installed a series of passwords on all the machines, shutting down the entire prison computer system. A prison source said, 'It's unbelievable that a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive. He set up such an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working.'"
The case of Kevin Mitnick, who was initially restricted from using any sort of communications technology whatsoever (no computer access at all, no mobile phone, etc.), other than a landline telephone...
There where those few hours while Bush was at the doctor's.
An asshole who bombs the asshole who is bombing the Kurds while telling us that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because that asshole is bombing the Kurds is not such an asshole. OUR asshole, however, was an asshole who was bombing the asshole who was bombing the Kurds while lying out of his ass that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is getting ready to bomb US, which he wasn't.
So the asshole was thinking if he told the truth he might not get to bomb and so he will lie to get his way. That asshole was supposed to work for us, by the way.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Sorry, I don't agree. The recidivism rate here is high because it's impossible to get a job with a conviction. It doesn't really matter what you do in prison, whether you just get in fights and get tattoos, or if you learn some useful skill with computers. Either way, you're going to be unemployed when you get out, and most likely your only way to survive will be to become a career criminal.
This isn't a government problem; it's private companies that won't hire ex-cons. However, it is partially the government's fault for keeping Prohibition going for decades, creating a whole class of people who can't work normal jobs because they went to prison for possessing naturally-growing plants.
What you don't understand is that in many other Western countries, people actually get their slate cleaned when they have served their sentence. Employers are not allowed to ask about or investigate former criminal records, except in very special circumstances. Discrimination based on a person's past is as illegal as discrimination based on gender, religion (including lack thereof) or sexual orientation.
So convicts can really get jobs afterwards, unlike in the US, where every sentence in reality is a life sentence.
Take a look at statistics for various countries. And what the countries have in common.
There's a very clear correlation between the countries that abhor justice being used as a tool for vengeance and both low crime rates in general and low recidivism rates.
And no, it's not the drug crimes that solely is the reason for the high statistics in the US. Free all drug "criminals", and you'll still have more than five times as many people imprisoned as countries like e.g. the Scandinavian ones. And a much higher recidivism rate too.
Like it or not, the US justice system is based on vengeance (as preached by certain religions), and vengeance never reduces violence.
I'm not an expert on this as I've never been convicted of (or arrested for) a crime, so this is just from what I've heard and read. Most employment applications ask if you've ever been convicted of a crime (other than speeding/parking tickets), yes/no. Answering this falsely can mean immediate termination if they ever find out, and possibly even get you sued (not likely). However, for them to find out means they'd have to do a background check. I'm pretty sure conviction information is publicly available, and background checking agencies specialize in finding that stuff. Not all employers do background checks; government jobs requiring a clearance obviously do this, and certain other jobs too, but most probably don't. As an embedded software developer, I think I've only had two, one when I was doing an internship for a military contractor, and at my most recent job which is in the financial industry. I don't think the other jobs did any background checks, and mostly didn't even bother checking references either.
A quick Google search turned up some Yahoo! Answers questions about this topic, with totally different answers: 1) Honesty is the best policy, some employers will understand, etc., and 2) Honestly will keep you unemployed because no one will hire an ex-con when people with clean records are available.
It sounds like your system in the Netherlands is much better, since most jobs don't need to know your criminal record (of course, unless you're around children, or large sums of money). Of course, your system on narcotics is much better too so that doesn't surprise me. We still haven't learned the lessons of Prohibition after 80 years, though unfortunately most other countries are making the exact same mistake.
IN PRISON: You spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell.
AT WORK: You spend the majority of your time in an 8X8 cubicle.
IN PRISON: You get three meals a day.
AT WORK: You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.
IN PRISON: You get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK: You get more work for good behavior.
IN PRISON: The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK: You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.
IN PRISON: You can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK: You could get fired for watching TV and playing games.
IN PRISON: You get your own toilet.
AT WORK: You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.
IN PRISON: They allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK: You arenÃâât even supposed to speak to your family.
IN PRISON: All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK: you get to pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
IN PRISON: You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK: You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.
IN PRISON: You must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK: They are called managers.
My Blog | Badsh