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Even Silicon Valley's Prison Inmates Have Their Own Startup Incubator
pigrabbitbear writes "There's a specific and stereotypical set of activities that spring to mind when you imagine what prison inmates do with their spare time. If there's a yard, they probably hang out, lift weights, get in fights, organize gangs. If there's not a yard, they might read books, write letters, get in fights, organize gangs. They don't write business plans and get giddy over startup ideas. But that's exactly what's happening at San Quentin State Prison, about an hour north of Silicon Valley. For the first time this year, the Last Mile program at the maximum security facility helped five inmates learn the ins and outs of social media and entrepreneurship in an effort to connect those who've been inside for several years with the technological reality of life on the outside. The tricky part about the future forward program is that many of its participants have never used a computer, and, since prison regulations forbid any contact with the outside world, won't be able to use one until they've served their sentences."
Sounds like a cruel and unusual punishment!
Sounds like a lot of the people offered as "consultants", especially from India.
People in my university finished CS without buying one, doing most of the work with pencil on paper (some bad people said knee on the floor...). After all, aren't we in an industry where the higher you go up the less you know about tech?
So so called "Social Medial Experts" really are crooks? I knew it!
They seriously can't set up a local network so they can skype/email/whatever between stations at at their computer lab? Run blog software that is served locally so they can try creating content and replying? Learn how to use FTP, Gopher, irc, etc.
Maybe they can't do Facebook, but can't they learn everything else this way?
Startup incubates you!
The tricky part about the future forward program is that many of its participants have never used a computer
This was not a problem in dotcom bubble 1.0, I'm not thinking it'll be a problem in dotcom bubble 2.0.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
CS is not IT and the higer ups are MBA's
I have never understood why prisoners should be forbidden from using an *offline* computer. Okay, so maybe they're blocked from the internet--but couldn't they at least learn the stuff they could do offline? Not even letting older prisoners understand how a modern computer even WORKS puts them so far behind the times that it's pretty unlikely they'll ever catch up.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Isn't that part of the punishment/revenge we want to inflict on those in prison? Never being able to function in society again, so they reoffend and stay the hell out of the way of the good, righteous, god-fearing folk.
helped five inmates learn
5. Five. 1 2 3 4 5. That would be "five". Given any arbitrary selection criteria, the membership count of the set of prisoners X in that selection criteria set are the natural numbers from 0 to 5 inclusive. Come on /. after you add UTF-8 how about MathML?
many of its participants have never used a computer
Why the vagueness? OK we're operating from five. Remember paper logic puzzles? I used to turn them into prolog statements and let the solver solve them. This was back when a XT with turbo prolog was cutting edge. But I digress. OK its /. logic puzzle time. Rule out 0 because they would have skipped this topic. Rule out 1 because they would have wrote "a" and rule out 5 because they would have written "all". We can rule out 2 because they would have written "a couple" unless they avoided that phrase WRT prison sex and so forth. Which is more, "many" or "several". I believe the informal ranking order is "many" is greater than "several" so of the remaining options 3 or 4, we can circle "4" as the answer.
Thats how I figured out exactly 4 inmates have never used a computer.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
But what about the white people in prison?
That pretty much describes behavior on the Internet to me.
Those folks should have no problems on the outside.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
America is a Prison Industrial Complex. Get over yourselves.
- In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
3) Practical Technology Training Provide basic computer training in the critical software tools that are utilized in today’s business sector. Access to the internet is NOT required for this training.
The headline and blog entry are wrong.
You forgot that the US prison system is privatized with 48 states signing a contract that they will make sure all prisons at at least 90% full.
In the past, penology 101 was about rehabilitating, where the inmate had a chance at a job once out. Then it was the incapacitation aspect, where a crook wasn't on the streets. Finally the deterrence aspect of "oh shit, if I do this, I'll end up behind bars."
Now, the goal is simple: The goal is to warehouse every warm body put in the system for the rest of their lives. Rehab? That means an inmate may not commit a new offense and wind up back (which means less money going to the private prison industry.) Judges know this, but are forced to have a conviction ratio or else they will be replaced come election season by a judge who will convict. Cops know this, because if they don't get enough "points" by arrests, the guy who whips out the handcuffs first and asks questions later will get the raises and rank.
You think a private prison who pares staff to the bone and pays their COs $8.00 an hour (compared to the county jail that pays a living wage) gives a shit about computers in the big house? All they care about is that their beds are full, and that there is no footage of riots or gang rapes that will ever leave their walls.
48 states signing a contract that they will make sure all prisons at at least 90% full.
Can you cite / link to that contract?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Don't trust whitey...
In the past, penology 101 was about rehabilitating, where the inmate had a chance at a job once out.
Rose colored glasses... Early penology (late 18th, early 19th century) focused on deterrence by increasing the relative cost of crime, and that's where many of the humiliating punishments came from, like stocks. Rehabilitation is a relatively recent occurrence, 1950s and on, that only came about with modern psychology, and many early rehabilitation therapies were pretty horrible, such as lobotomy or shock therapy.
48 states signing a contract that they will make sure all prisons at at least 90% full.
Can you cite / link to that contract?
No, apparently I was just trolling...
The incentives of the system reward high occupancy. If there were more funding for wardens and prisons who had lower recidivism rates then there'd be less of a clamour for tougher sentencing laws funded by the prison industrial complex, America wouldn't have such an obscenely high incarceration rate, and there'd be a lot less crime committed by inmates after release since there would have been more investment in rehabilitation.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
This is probably among the most reputable links to be found.
Conjugal visits APP? Find local girls who really want to show a man behind bars a good time
Judges know this, but are forced to have a conviction ratio or else they will be replaced come election season by a judge who will convict.
Fail. Epic fail. In the USA, judges don't convict people, juries do. It's prosecutors that have to worry about a conviction rate, not judges. Step away from the keyboard, go back to school and stop cutting your Social Studies classes to post ignorant slop on Slashdot.
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Some company making an offer is not the same as states signing a contract. Typical FUD from HuffPost (and you should never refer to them as "reputable", they're not).
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Seems pretty legit! They've been able to cook there for a long time, might as well have hot yoga and startup classes. Also, the location is fabulous for this, all they have to do is dial up some of the biggest VC's in the biz, just down the road in Tiburon! A lot better than when they had to write their startup ideas on a paper airplane and throw them in the direction of Tom Perkins' house or try folding one that'll make it to the Embarcadero!
How is it FUD if the states agreed to the terms (which they did)?
I have never understood why prisoners should be forbidden from using an *offline* computer.
Actually, they're not, at least in California. I personally know several inmates who are taking college courses "behind bars." The computers aren't Internet-connected, and the instructor collects the flash drives they store their work on between classes, but they have access to computers for educational purposes. Some inmate clerks also have access to computers (non-networked) for typing and other clerical tasks.
In the federal system, they're even experimenting with the very limited and locked down TRULINCS email system for inmates...
What's not accurate is the summary's claim that "prison regulations forbid any contact with the outside world." Inmates routinely contact the outside world through telephone calls, letters, and contact and/or non-contact (and in California and New York, for most inmates, the possibility of "family" a/k/a "trailer" a/k/a/ "conjugal") visits...
On a related topic, anyone remember the Wired article on Roy Wahlberg? "Roy Wahlberg hacked a man to death, then hacked his way into a million-dollar software business behind bars."
geek. lawyer.
the vast majority of cases never make it to jury, so there. =P
Please pont out where in the linked article it says even one state agreed to those terms. I can't find it.
Actually, if it's not a felony, then the first trial normally is handled by a judge. You only get your "right to a jury trial" if you appeal that judge's decision. And these very judges are elected, and often run on their stance of being "tough on crime."
Mind you, this is in cases where a trial even happens. In something like 95% of cases, there is no trial but rather only a prosecutor using the threat of our incredibly draconian mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines to extort confessions out of people who may or may not actually be guilty in what is referred to as "plea bargaining."
This is what we were missing -- violent criminals in position of control over other people!
Can we, please, have LESS "entrepreneurs"?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Actually, the cut off is imprisonment of 6 months or more or a fine of $1000 or more (both in consideration with outside penalties like loss of a license and requirements to seek treatments like drug and alcohol counseling and so on) which makes misdemeanors fall within that scope.
This right to jury trial changes from state to state also in which some state Constitutions or laws lower the threshold in which someone is guaranteed a right to jury trial Vermont and Virginia, if memory serves me correct, even allow jury trials for parking tickets if the accused is willing to pay for the jury costs. Virginia I think actually allows a redo in a court just above the magistrate level if you lose an initial trial without a jury on a petty or minor offense.
As for being tough on crime, you do realize that whoever violated the law knew there were penalties before they violated it and somewhat agreed to be punished according to the strictest penalty when deciding to do so. I don't think the tough on crime stick adds anything as none of the penalties are created after the fact unless it is a matter of someone unjustly being convicted which can hurt the elected Judge and Prosecutor just the same.
the vast majority of cases never make it to jury, so there. =P
citation please. and all of them at least have the option to have trial. maybe the ones that plea out do so because they commit the crime but they don't want as serve as long of a term as they would probably get if they go to trial.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
nothing else much to say about that.
the vast majority of cases never make it to jury, so there. =P
citation please. and all of them at least have the option to have trial. maybe the ones that plea out do so because they commit the crime but they don't want as serve as long of a term as they would probably get if they go to trial.
More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury
San Quentin, I hate every last mile of you.
Piggers. P ( (ink) - N ) + iggers. [Actually "P" could represent pink, police (my preference) or both--depending upon your predilections.]
Let me guess: They're in for computer crimes?
Some company making an offer is not the same as states signing a contract. Typical FUD from HuffPost (and you should never refer to them as "reputable", they're not).
No, only Fox News is reputable. Eveyone else is just left wing propaganda.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
As for being tough on crime, you do realize that whoever violated the law knew there were penalties before they violated it and somewhat agreed to be punished according to the strictest penalty when deciding to do so. I don't think the tough on crime stick adds anything as none of the penalties are created after the fact unless it is a matter of someone unjustly being convicted which can hurt the elected Judge and Prosecutor just the same.
The way you are "tough on crime" is to convict everybody who comes before you, as long as there is a vaguely coherent prosecution case, and sentence them to the maximum allowed by law. You don't take any extenuating circumstances into account, you don't apply any relativity or equity, and you make sure that as many people as possible are bullied into confessing due to the threat of a longer sentence.
All this you do legally.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I agree with everything except the bullying confessions and convicting everyone.
First the bullying. If someone commits a crime, they are looking at the max sentence regardless of the judge being tough on crime. The do not make sentence guidelines up on the spot and they are available to being known well in advance of the crime. I find complaint about getting the max sentence for a crime someone is convicted of to be a non sequitur. It is like complaining that you purchased a 12 pack of beers and there was only 12 beers in it.
Now the convict everyone who comes before you. This simply does not happen unless there is enough evidence to get a conviction in which case it is already proper. No matter how tough on crime a judge wants to appear to be, if his judgement is constantly getting overturned on appeal, or there are thousands of complaints or wrong doing, he will look like an imbecile. If he looks like an imbecile long enough, the state bar or other jurisdictional body will seek punishment or sanctions including removing the right of the court he serves on to hear cases and in some cases publicly recommend his impeachment to the governing legislation body. It all depends on the extreme nature and how much of a solid case they have. If a pattern of gross misconduct is present (convicting everyone whether they are guilty or not), his immunity from civil liability can be removed too.
Those possibilities are all reasons why they won't do that- or do it for very long. This is a story of a juvenile judge in PA who was tough on crime doing exactly this with the exception of getting kickbacks from the private jails and detention centers. http://abcnews.go.com/US/mark-ciavarella-pa-juvenile-court-judge-convicted-alleged/story?id=12965182
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