6 ms·

Prisons not only make the convicts inside them worse, but from my experience and POV, it makes the people observing and interacting with them worse as well. I

• sprafa 9y ago
  Have you tried freelancing remote? What do you need?
• Mz 9y ago
  Eh, they do the same thing to homeless people. (Or women.) In my experience, it helps to focus on the "I need a job" part (or other specific, constructive assistance) and not so much on the "my life is a shit show" part. I have some sites I can link you to that might be useful to you. Gig Works: http://gigworks.blogspot.com/ http://gigworks.blogspot.com/ Write Pay: http://writepay.blogspot.com/ http://writepay.blogspot.com/ San Diego Homeless Survival Guide: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ Sorry, I can't do more for you. I do sympathize, but I'm basically broke at the moment myself and I absolutely am not in some kind of position to hire anyone. I just scrape by myself every month, but I do write and try to put out useful information for people in need. Best.
• Camillo 9y ago
  May I ask you a question about your story in [0]? You said that you could not call anyone because you did not remember any numbers. Is that how it works? When they let you make a phone call after arrest, you can only call numbers you know by heart? You can't look them up? That sounds insane, who commits phone numbers to memory nowadays?
  • lastofus 9y ago
    You don't get to keep your phone once arrested and booked. If the person processing your items is nice, they will look up a number for you in your phone and write it down on some scratch paper which you can take into holding.
    • SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
      Problem there is now they're in your phone.
    • tripzilch 9y ago
      That's ridiculous. What if the person isn't nice? What if you didn't have your phone with you in the first place? Or it got damaged or lost? How did this even work before mobile phones that stored contact lists, which really isn't that long ago? What should any of that matter as to whether you get justice or not? I swear, with this stuff, the plea bargaining, juries, "expensive lawyers", sometimes I get the idea that the US justice system is designed to provide plot devices for TV series of police/justice procedurals, and everything else is an afterthought. How often do people say, after dealing with police/justice, "I felt like I was in a bad movie"?
      • carrja99 9y ago
        If the person isn't nice you are SOL. I got arrested once during a commute for an unpaid parking ticket from college, cue cop placing cuffs on me tightly, slamming me against the squad car, searching the vehicle, then hauling me off to county for booking. They refused to let me look up numbers on my phone and I was left to call my parents 3 hours away to come pay the cash only bond. It was a pretty eye opening experience. Especially on the arresting officer's part because they get no clue as to why they are arresting you beyond "FAILURE TO APPEAR" that shows on their screen, so they assume the worst.
• Roritharr 9y ago
  Your Paypal Donation URL is missing from the article. Are you still looking for that laptop?
• jpindar 9y ago
  This is why everyone needs a liquid emergency fund (or at least a credit card), so you don't have to settle for a public defender.
• vellum 9y ago
  Check out some of the companies here. They hire based on trial projects (mostly unpaid). https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards
• crawfordcomeaux 9y ago
  I want to be one person to offer to help me in any meaningful way I can. I'm deeply familiar with being in a situation where everyone says someone ought to do something about it, often followed with "but that's just the way things are." It's especially frustrating coming from people who objectively can help and choose not to. I've been in the same boat as you: frustrated, scared, and broke. I'm also guessing you're feeling a bit lonely & desperate? I'm still broke and looking for work. I also have my own ideas I'm pursuing and would love help with. I think some of my stuff could be relatively easy to get funding for, too. If you're interested in talking to me about them or anything else you'd like to be heard on, my contact info is in my profile. With respect to why these systemic problems go addressed and why people who say there needs to be change aren't stepping up, I think it boils down to how complex the general situation is and how difficult compassion can specifically be when it involves talking action. The general problem requires the ability to think in a way that at least includes: - Seeing past notions of good & evil - Designing a system using nonviolent principles - Accounting for 1st-7th person perspectives (hierarchical levels of humanity's dynamic system) The problem of helping you specifically is society teaches us to want to help without really teaching us how to. I'd say we're pretty much taught to do the opposite, most of the time. Behaviors are like beliefs: they can't be removed without having something to replace them with. I've had to learn to very specifically request things I want from others without expecting them to provide it. This is definitely a skill and it takes potentially painful work to develop. It's also worth the effort. I hope you find what you need and will reach out to me, even if simply for mutual support.
• rorykoehler 9y ago
  With all due respect I would never hire someone who has been arrested for meth and heroin because it screams potential problems. Regardless of why you may take them they still affect you in the same way they affect a recreational user. All the meth users I have known have become erratic, depressed and eventually stopped and recovered or spiralled out of control. Heroin less so depending on the consistency and quality of supply, consumption methods and ability to service the addiction. The cost of a bad hire is too much. Business is hard enough when you have the perfect team so any signal that an employee may be difficult is enough to turn employers off. This isn't about your technical abilities. My advice, given your considerable experience, would be to start your own business or if you can't validate any solid ideas start a consultancy. It's highly unlikely your consultancy clients will look up your record.
  • mowenz 9y ago
    Non-violent drug offenders being sent to prison is closer to a human rights abuse than a just outcome. Edit - to be more concise: It's just amazing to me the number of people willing to listen to and preach high and mighty politics while still the world has people willing to work, not do anything to hurt anybody else, and yet they can have such a hard time in a world with so much. What can be done for this?
    • rorykoehler 9y ago
      I'll be the first to support the full legalisation and regulation of the recreational drugs market. Abuse of recreational drugs needs to be treated as an illness. I believe happy, healthy and fulfilled individuals don't abuse drugs. Drug abuse is a symptom of a deeper malaise in society as well as in the individual. We, as individuals, reflect our environments in our patterns and behaviours. I am also a big fan of universal basic income as it provides a buffer when needed. On top of this we need educational programs that promote upward mobility, self-reliance and adaptability in a ever changing world. IMO we should be doing the opposite of what we are in so many areas of government and policy. It's hard to know where to start. Thankfully, though it may not seem like it, we are moving in the right direction. Public awareness and consciousness is improving with each generation.
• vidoc 9y ago
  > Prisons not only make the convicts inside them worse, but from my experience and POV, it makes the people observing and interacting with them worse as well. I'm afraid you are spot on. The fact prison most of the time makes people worse (truth be said it does act positively for some people sometimes, albeit rarely) is almost irrelevant here. I think the real problem is how the society at large clusters ex-convicts in a certain moral bucket, ad vitam eternal, when they are out. The idea that they have paid their debt to the society is ... just an idea in reality, and sadly, when they are released, the real punishment begins and makes them pay in all kinds of senses. Firstly, I know it's not an easy subject with no perfect solution, and perhaps I'm a bit radical, but I think the very concept of rehabilitation will always just be a total joke as long as there is a culture of 'public records'. Especially in this google age. Nowadays, discriminations is getting less and less popular in this country, except towards ex-convicts, that's an open bar right there. Secondly, disproportionate punishments. I mean, your case is such a perfect illustration. Ninety days in jail for possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use. And as you said with quotes, it was a "deal". Honestly, being an immigrant to this country myself, I'm probably not very well placed to criticize or comment that kind of realities of the justice system but to be honest, I often wonder whether or not people actually realize it's totally out of this world insane, and that very few others places on this planet would have justice systems inflicting such crazy punishments. I kind of suspect most people are in favor of those punishments actually, sometimes just culturally with a moral compass still a bit reminiscent of puritanism, and sometimes based on the belief that harsh sanctions can provide deterrence. One candidate in the last presidential election attempted to pitch the fact that 1.5% of Americans are behind bars as one issue to talk about, but it didn't seem to tackle much interest. PS: post your paypal donation URL
  • toss1941 9y ago
    I largely agree but this whole issue needs to be looked at through eyes of compassion first and foremost. Jesus stood by a woman who was about to be stoned for adultery and told her would-be killers that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. Then he began to write in the sand, it doesn't say what he wrote, but it was probably some of the sins of the would be stoners and they fled quickly, realizing they were no better than she was. I think most americans who would applaud a 90 day sentence for a small quantity of drugs for personal use would feel guilty reading that story in the Bible in that context. People forget that those who turn to hard drugs don't tend to do so because they're simply rebels spoiling for a fight with the justice system. They do so because they're people and people have problems, every single one of us. There needs to be a return to compassion but as long as drug users are vilified in every possible way on every possible television show, that won't change. Hollywood could lead the return to compassion if it wanted to by raising awareness of what is actually happening in people's lives, how drugs are seen as a (usually bad) solution or an escape and give concrete workable examples of how that can change. In the end, it's a problem of ignorance, i.e. people believe and act one way when they would be best off doing something entirely different were they armed with more information about their problems. Rather than 90 days in jail, it could be 9 weeks of counseling for one or two hours while the person remains a productive member of society. So I just don't think attacking this as a problem with long sentences is going to do anything to help anyone. You might get sentences greatly reduced, but have you actually helped the root problem?
• trevyn 9y ago
  To be honest, the biggest red flag is that you don't have any friends who could provide you a temporary place to stay. That implies some things.
  • k__ 9y ago
    often people just leave you when you go to prison. A friend of mine had a boyfriend who was in prison and she was the only one visiting. None of his friends came and he was just in for a few weeks because he doged the train fare too often.
    • irixusr 9y ago
      Well dodging the train fare is pretty nasty thing to do. But jail time??? Wow.
• vertex-four 9y ago
  > not one person here has offered to help me in any meaningful way Part of the issue is that most - maybe practically all - people calling for compassion for convicts are workers rather than managers, and not in a position to employ anyone.
• hl5 9y ago
  Steal. It's your only way out for convicts in this system. You too don't need to be compassionate and can freely ignore anyone's desire for safety, as you have been labeled as not deserving of either.
• joelx 9y ago
  I own a LAMP stack web agency with 85 employees. If you aren't just blowing hot air, visit coalitiontechnologies.com/jobs and apply. If you pass my skills tests and want a reasonable salary, I will hire you.
• tmp-20150107 9y ago
  This is one of the things I'm frightened of. I'm a successful software engineer, you've probably heard me speak at various conferences, I contribute to popular open source projects, but ... I have a twenty-year heroin habit. So, any minor interaction with law enforcement has the potential to spiral into a drug related cluster fuck, just as happened in your case. I'm fortunate that my employer is aware of my situation, and I'm working my way towards being clean long-term, but if I was in the US I think my situation would be far more precarious. I wish you luck getting yourself back together, and you have my utmost respect and congratulations for kicking the heroin cold turkey - nobody who has not been there themselves can ever properly realise what an achievement that is - keep up the good work, I know it will be a struggle every day from now on. I hope you get the rest of the help you need.