4 ms·

No matter what anyone says, you do not want to go to prison in the USA. It’s dirty, the food sucks, no AC / poor heating / poor ventilation, you are told what t

No matter what anyone says, you do not want to go to prison in the USA. It’s dirty, the food sucks, no AC / poor heating / poor ventilation, you are told what to do and have to do it. You won’t get raped but you will be frequently naked in front of strangers. The bed is a cot and if you have a bad back it will be awful. The room will stink of shit as everyone is shitting 5 feet from each other. The societal stain is bad for your reputation. You do not want to go to prison.

derwiki 4y ago
I think that's supposed to be the incentive to not partake in illegal activities, e.g. defrauding your investors.
- monero-xmr 4y ago
  All these soft people on HN complaining the sentence isn’t harsh enough or the “prison camp is a joke”. Prison sucks and she will not have a fun time.
  - root_axis 4y ago
    The response is due to the inequity with respect to the vast majority of prisoners, many of which will be raped and subject to slave labor conditions. "Prison sucks" to be sure, but compared to most people she will be getting off easy.
    - ALittleLight 4y ago
      Do you think the other inmates are all rich too?
    - pm90 4y ago
      > many of which will be raped and subject to slave labor conditions. for far leas damaging crimes is the crucial part. To be clear: I don’t support those conditions for anyone. When society meets out punishment, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to terrorize people who are serving out their sentence. But that it happens to people who don’t even deserve it is horrifying.
      - lo_zamoyski 4y ago
        > punishment [...] shouldn’t be used as an excuse to terrorize people who are serving out their sentence Indeed, the three aims of punishment are retribution, rehabilitation, and deterrence. None of these entail malice, which itself is evil and degrades the malicious person.
        alienicecream 4y ago
        I think the person looking for retribution has more right to decide that than you do.
  - willcipriano 4y ago
    A random guy caught with a bag will have a worse time.
  - femiagbabiaka 4y ago
    It is an interesting dichotomy. A 10 year sentence at any age is basically the end of your life as it existed. When you get out, you won't even have a credit score if someone wasn't managing these things for you. Most people never recover from that, some lucky ones do. But in the U.S., for many crimes, folks would not see 10 years as enough.
    - ddoolin 4y ago
      My hypothesis is that your last observation is because of the ostracization (or separation?) of those individuals from society. How many people does the average middle-class person know that have been to jail/prison for anything longer than a night? There's a real disparity between what people perceive a prison sentence and its effects as, and what it actually is. Combine that ignorance with the hard on we as a country have for imprisonment, for various reasons, and it seems like that's what you get.
      - femiagbabiaka 4y ago
        Yep I think that's right. People don't understand what a 10 year chunk of your life in hell can actually mean. Communicating that is also very difficult.
  - andyferris 4y ago
    To the sibling commenters: I would say no-one should be getting raped or subject to slave labor in prison... theoretically the aim even for those in "worse" prisons should be to have them come out the other side able to function in society better than before, not worse.
    - colordrops 4y ago
      That is true but the problem is that the class of people that maintain and profit off of the brutal prison pipeline are the same ones that get to go to Club Fed if they get into trouble. It's a horrible double standard.
    - lo_zamoyski 4y ago
      > I would say no-one should be getting raped Obviously. > or subject to slave labor in prison... Why not? We're not talking chattel slavery, but penal labor. The notion that it is somehow categorically wrong to sentence someone to labor as a penalty is absurd. > theoretically the aim even for those in "worse" prisons should be to have them come out the other side able to function in society better than before, not worse. Life imprisonment does not have that as a goal for obvious reasons which shows that rehabilitation is for the sake of the offender as such. And are you claiming that punishment makes people worse? It doesn't. It facilitates rehabilitation. Proportionate penalties enable the guilty to acknowledge the gravity of their offense; without acknowledgement, there is no rehabilitation. It allows people to suffer for their guilt. When people cannot suffer for their crimes, you actually deprive them of means to pay for their evil deeds. One has an objective moral duty toward justice; an injustice left unpaid will derange the psyche of the offender. Repressed guilt is at the root of many strange disorders and behaviors. Like projection and scapegoating. Besides, rehabilitation is only one component of punishment. The other two are retribution and deterrence.
      - analognoise 4y ago
        >Why not? Because it creates a financial incentive to put people in prison. Nobody should be profiting from prison labor and companies frequently do. Judges can own stock in companies that utilize prison labor, increasing sentences. It's ongoing and clearly an outrage to true justice. That's why.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- maxerickson 4y ago
  Loss of autonomy should receive a lot of weight when evaluating a punishment. Like if our goal is to actually build a better society, prison shouldn't be a lot worse than loss of autonomy. If you are going to release someone, do you want them to be in a worse state when you do that than when you took away their autonomy? Of course we are collectively deranged, so oh well.
lo_zamoyski 4y ago
Such discomfort. Sounds rough. I hear they don't even have baristas.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> the food sucks If you're leaving during the day, can't you eat then?

derwiki 4y ago

I think that's supposed to be the incentive to not partake in illegal activities, e.g. defrauding your investors.

monero-xmr 4y ago
All these soft people on HN complaining the sentence isn’t harsh enough or the “prison camp is a joke”. Prison sucks and she will not have a fun time.
- root_axis 4y ago
  The response is due to the inequity with respect to the vast majority of prisoners, many of which will be raped and subject to slave labor conditions. "Prison sucks" to be sure, but compared to most people she will be getting off easy.
  - ALittleLight 4y ago
    Do you think the other inmates are all rich too?
  - pm90 4y ago
    > many of which will be raped and subject to slave labor conditions. for far leas damaging crimes is the crucial part. To be clear: I don’t support those conditions for anyone. When society meets out punishment, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to terrorize people who are serving out their sentence. But that it happens to people who don’t even deserve it is horrifying.
    - lo_zamoyski 4y ago
      > punishment [...] shouldn’t be used as an excuse to terrorize people who are serving out their sentence Indeed, the three aims of punishment are retribution, rehabilitation, and deterrence. None of these entail malice, which itself is evil and degrades the malicious person.
      - alienicecream 4y ago
        I think the person looking for retribution has more right to decide that than you do.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  A random guy caught with a bag will have a worse time.
- femiagbabiaka 4y ago
  It is an interesting dichotomy. A 10 year sentence at any age is basically the end of your life as it existed. When you get out, you won't even have a credit score if someone wasn't managing these things for you. Most people never recover from that, some lucky ones do. But in the U.S., for many crimes, folks would not see 10 years as enough.
  - ddoolin 4y ago
    My hypothesis is that your last observation is because of the ostracization (or separation?) of those individuals from society. How many people does the average middle-class person know that have been to jail/prison for anything longer than a night? There's a real disparity between what people perceive a prison sentence and its effects as, and what it actually is. Combine that ignorance with the hard on we as a country have for imprisonment, for various reasons, and it seems like that's what you get.
    - femiagbabiaka 4y ago
      Yep I think that's right. People don't understand what a 10 year chunk of your life in hell can actually mean. Communicating that is also very difficult.
- andyferris 4y ago
  To the sibling commenters: I would say no-one should be getting raped or subject to slave labor in prison... theoretically the aim even for those in "worse" prisons should be to have them come out the other side able to function in society better than before, not worse.
  - colordrops 4y ago
    That is true but the problem is that the class of people that maintain and profit off of the brutal prison pipeline are the same ones that get to go to Club Fed if they get into trouble. It's a horrible double standard.
  - lo_zamoyski 4y ago
    > I would say no-one should be getting raped Obviously. > or subject to slave labor in prison... Why not? We're not talking chattel slavery, but penal labor. The notion that it is somehow categorically wrong to sentence someone to labor as a penalty is absurd. > theoretically the aim even for those in "worse" prisons should be to have them come out the other side able to function in society better than before, not worse. Life imprisonment does not have that as a goal for obvious reasons which shows that rehabilitation is for the sake of the offender as such. And are you claiming that punishment makes people worse? It doesn't. It facilitates rehabilitation. Proportionate penalties enable the guilty to acknowledge the gravity of their offense; without acknowledgement, there is no rehabilitation. It allows people to suffer for their guilt. When people cannot suffer for their crimes, you actually deprive them of means to pay for their evil deeds. One has an objective moral duty toward justice; an injustice left unpaid will derange the psyche of the offender. Repressed guilt is at the root of many strange disorders and behaviors. Like projection and scapegoating. Besides, rehabilitation is only one component of punishment. The other two are retribution and deterrence.
    - analognoise 4y ago
      >Why not? Because it creates a financial incentive to put people in prison. Nobody should be profiting from prison labor and companies frequently do. Judges can own stock in companies that utilize prison labor, increasing sentences. It's ongoing and clearly an outrage to true justice. That's why.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
maxerickson 4y ago
Loss of autonomy should receive a lot of weight when evaluating a punishment. Like if our goal is to actually build a better society, prison shouldn't be a lot worse than loss of autonomy. If you are going to release someone, do you want them to be in a worse state when you do that than when you took away their autonomy? Of course we are collectively deranged, so oh well.

lo_zamoyski 4y ago

Such discomfort. Sounds rough. I hear they don't even have baristas.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> the food sucks If you're leaving during the day, can't you eat then?