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I'm not aware if this is a public or private prison... but does anyone know if that would matter? Would a private prison be required to evacuate and do whateve

I'm not aware if this is a public or private prison... but does anyone know if that would matter? Would a private prison be required to evacuate and do whatever it takes to move the prisoners safely?

rayiner 8y ago
South Carolina had no private prisons.
briandear 8y ago
Are they actually unsafe now? Anyone see the blueprints of the prison? The topo shows it 10 feet higher than surrounding land. A prison is probably the safest place during a hurricane. Assuming the inmates aren’t safe where they are is an especially big assumption that deserves debate. But the knee-jerk response is that they are all in severe danger based on no facts other than a hurricane might be heading in that direction. Risk assessment isn’t easily translated in puerile news articles designed to rile people up. If it weren’t for the fact the governor is Republican, and it wasn’t election season, this would be a non-story: nowhere in the story did it discuss the structure or placement of the prison, nor the risk assessment matrix used to determine safety. Rikers Island wasn’t evacuated during Sandy and that wasn’t some controversy except for an article in Mother Jones while Republican governor Christie evacuated relevant New Jersey prisons. Was Cuomo held to account for failing to evacuate Rikers which was in the direct path of the storm — and an island at that? In the end, didn’t Rikers survive just fine? Perhaps the people in charge of these decisions might actually know what they are doing? With the exception of Ray Nagin and the one-step-from-a-nervous-breakdown Gov. Blanco, states typically do a pretty good job with these sorts of decisions; certainly a better job than the armchair experts and journalists that have limited experience in these sorts of challenges. These debates are fine, but let’s not discount the motivations behind these sorts of stories. And I also wonder what merits this story on Hacker News. It doesn’t follow the guidelines at all unless I missed some startup or tech or esoteric item of interest to our community.

I'm not aware if this is a public or private prison... but does anyone know if that would matter? Would a private prison be required to evacuate and do whatever it takes to move the prisoners safely?

rayiner 8y ago

South Carolina had no private prisons.

briandear 8y ago

Are they actually unsafe now? Anyone see the blueprints of the prison? The topo shows it 10 feet higher than surrounding land. A prison is probably the safest place during a hurricane. Assuming the inmates aren’t safe where they are is an especially big assumption that deserves debate. But the knee-jerk response is that they are all in severe danger based on no facts other than a hurricane might be heading in that direction. Risk assessment isn’t easily translated in puerile news articles designed to rile people up. If it weren’t for the fact the governor is Republican, and it wasn’t election season, this would be a non-story: nowhere in the story did it discuss the structure or placement of the prison, nor the risk assessment matrix used to determine safety. Rikers Island wasn’t evacuated during Sandy and that wasn’t some controversy except for an article in Mother Jones while Republican governor Christie evacuated relevant New Jersey prisons. Was Cuomo held to account for failing to evacuate Rikers which was in the direct path of the storm — and an island at that? In the end, didn’t Rikers survive just fine? Perhaps the people in charge of these decisions might actually know what they are doing? With the exception of Ray Nagin and the one-step-from-a-nervous-breakdown Gov. Blanco, states typically do a pretty good job with these sorts of decisions; certainly a better job than the armchair experts and journalists that have limited experience in these sorts of challenges. These debates are fine, but let’s not discount the motivations behind these sorts of stories. And I also wonder what merits this story on Hacker News. It doesn’t follow the guidelines at all unless I missed some startup or tech or esoteric item of interest to our community.