A person below asked, "Why is this clearly extremely intelligent individual in prison?" (The comment is dead.)
My father has several degrees, including a doctorate. He is highly intelligent, has an incredible work ethic and is a very kind and considerate person.
He went to prison for 6 months for a minor financial crime, something that was very out of character for him. The judge did not wish to send him to prison (she said that in court) but the prosecutor insisted that the prosecution would appeal any non-custodial sentence. So the judge gave him the minimum 6 months. That custodial sentence ruined my father's life, made him basically unemployable, despite his brilliance and integrity, and ruined my family's life too. Now my parents live in poverty and I have $23 in my bank account, with rent due tomorrow. I expect to be homeless by next week. Not a great situation for somebody with clinical depression.
Intelligent, good people can and do end up in prison and it can ruin lives (and not just the person behind bars, but also the people who love them). Good people do sometimes make terrible mistakes. My experience of this taught me so much. The really hard way.
For anyone who has a family member in prison, or has a similar story to mine, I feel for you.
> "While he's on bond, he commits a strong-arm robbery down in Monroe stealing a fifth of whiskey," Bredell said, adding that authorities in Monroe eventually dropped those charges because the Washtenaw County case took precedence.
It's tragic to see bright young people in prison like this. Travis (the son in this post) is 25. To be in prison since 19 years old, with the earliest release date in 2027 (latest in 2045)... Goodness. This sort of time in jail is what you get for murder in parts of Europe [1].
Anyway, sorry if it's off-topic. Very inspiring what he's up to.
This guy killed two teenagers with his car, because he was wasted. I'm not going to shed any tears for this guy when people have gotten similar sentences for small amounts of certain drugs.
A 12 year sentence is nothing in America, but hopefully his treatment in prison is humane and he has all the access possible to resources for education, health, and eventual contribution to society. It won't be though, of course, since the US prison system has fostered a brutal environment that causes recidivism, mostly arising out of American hatred of the poor and of dark-skinned people.
When I was 19, I didn't have a father or mother to send me books, but I managed to barter with other prisoners to get books to come in from the outside.
My primary focus was computer science rather than mathematics, and even though I didn't have a computer to work with, I wrote out all my programs on paper. Learning was slow, very slow.
When I got out, it took me 8 months to get a computer. I couldn't afford to buy one, so I bought it part by part and built one myself, even though I never had done it before.
Fast forward 20 years, I'm a multimillionaire, successful startup founder, and two IPOs deep. I think my success came from the anger I felt in prison. Nothing could be worse than serving time, I told myself, and it made me very ambitious because of it.
Reading Travis' letter and seeing his DOC number at the bottom of it made me feel all those painful, frustrated moments I had while serving time.
Best of luck to Travis. I will be contacting his father and sending what is allowed.
Sometimes I try to imagine life without prisons. It seems an inexorable part of the human condition: where society exists, punishment exists. It's a bit like trying to imagine all the foods we're missing out on by them not existing; it's easy to imagine a world without tomatoes, for example, and if you invert that thinking, you end up with all the foods we might have enjoyed if they evolved.
Is there any society with no judicial system? Or is it an absolute requirement of any group of people over, say, 10,000?
This is so depressing. I really hate our punitive justice system.
Punishing people for 15 years doesn't change drunk driving. If they were *thinking* before driving drunk, or contemplating the consequences, they wouldn't be driving drunk.
What those consequences be if the society does not punish people for that? (where “punishment” isn’t necessarily prison time)
You can’t bring back dead people to life, unfortunately. For some other crimes you can be fined, make amendments in other ways, having your license revoked, etc. But not for manslaughter. For this crime any punishment is exerted only as a message to other people: don’t kill people or else those bad things will happen to you.
If there weren’t stiff penalties for drunk driving it’d be rampant. The fear of being locked away for 20 years most definitely acts as a preventative measure.
> Punishing people for 15 years doesn’t change drunk driving.
It absolutely prevents the particular actor from driving drunk for the period of actual incarceration. It may even make it more likely that they will think before doing it again, even if they did not think the first time; and if you argue that the people who would do it once aren’t rationally deterrable even by adverse experience, that makes long-duration incapacitation such as by incarceration even more critical.
So how many people will somebody have to kill before you consider them dangerous enough to lock up? Also, do you realise that some people are too damaged/dangerous/psychopathic to ever be “fixed” enough to live in society?
To the person who deleted their question, yes most institutions prefer you ship straight from Amazon. Make sure the inmate has the book pre-approved to prevent SNAFUs.
It’s unfortunate that so many here are advocating for harsh prison sentences for some perceived deterrent value.
The US has the highest total number of people in prison, as well as the highest per capita rate [0], and yet we still have high rates of crimes we throw people in jail for decades for.
Clearly this system isn’t having any deterrent impact, and it is having a huge cost to both the lives directly deprived of freedom and to the families around them.
You’re right, but when referring to harsh prison sentences I think most people mean the fact the non-violent offenses like drug related ones can get you significant time.
There are crimes of desperation and crimes of selfishness, most people I think have less tolerance for one than the other.
I read the question and answers and felt a little cheerful at the idea of someone turning his life around and even thought to myself that maybe the system works sometimes.
Then I came back here and read a few of the comments, particularly those by the new throwaway accounts (except for the top one). I shouldn't have read the comments, particularly those by the new throwaway accounts (and not because they might have changed my mind about the question and answers; they didn't, far from it).
this case makes me wonder - are there reasons that no govt agency nor NGO has offered computers to jails... with restricted connectivity to only specific domains like Coursera, Edx, etc?
I understand the need to prevent criminal activity via internet access, but that seems like a trivial technical problem... or is it ?
I'd think such an initiative would impact re-incarceration rates, which for the price of a few laptops, seems like a steal (pun intended)
Probably the thinking is that any online platform likely has some roundabout way to be used to communicate with people on the outside. Internal message boards, group chats, help desk, etc. The software would have to be usable completely offline to be acceptable.
I'm beyond disturbed that you think a suggestion to proselytize your religion without any other discussion or interest in this person's life is a useful and empathetic action here.
Please don't do this. Think more before you speak.
[+] [-] sixmonths|5 years ago|reply
My father has several degrees, including a doctorate. He is highly intelligent, has an incredible work ethic and is a very kind and considerate person.
He went to prison for 6 months for a minor financial crime, something that was very out of character for him. The judge did not wish to send him to prison (she said that in court) but the prosecutor insisted that the prosecution would appeal any non-custodial sentence. So the judge gave him the minimum 6 months. That custodial sentence ruined my father's life, made him basically unemployable, despite his brilliance and integrity, and ruined my family's life too. Now my parents live in poverty and I have $23 in my bank account, with rent due tomorrow. I expect to be homeless by next week. Not a great situation for somebody with clinical depression.
Intelligent, good people can and do end up in prison and it can ruin lives (and not just the person behind bars, but also the people who love them). Good people do sometimes make terrible mistakes. My experience of this taught me so much. The really hard way.
For anyone who has a family member in prison, or has a similar story to mine, I feel for you.
[+] [-] nickysielicki|5 years ago|reply
See also: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2015/10/crash_victims_f...
> "While he's on bond, he commits a strong-arm robbery down in Monroe stealing a fifth of whiskey," Bredell said, adding that authorities in Monroe eventually dropped those charges because the Washtenaw County case took precedence.
Alcohol has ruined a lot of lives.
[+] [-] sebmellen|5 years ago|reply
Anyway, sorry if it's off-topic. Very inspiring what he's up to.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imprisonment_in_the_Nethe...
> Due to the strict nature of the sentence, most "common" murders result in a sentence of around 12 to 30 years.
EDIT: If you downvoted me I would appreciate knowing why. What is it that I wrote?
[+] [-] whiddershins|5 years ago|reply
Let’s all think.
Are we saying it is tragic for smart and young people to be in prison but not older or less intelligent people?
I’m not messing with you or being snarky. I felt your sentiment keenly and then wonder what exactly I’m agreeing with.
[+] [-] astura|5 years ago|reply
Uhhhhhhhh... You know he killed multiple people, right?
[+] [-] 3131s|5 years ago|reply
A 12 year sentence is nothing in America, but hopefully his treatment in prison is humane and he has all the access possible to resources for education, health, and eventual contribution to society. It won't be though, of course, since the US prison system has fostered a brutal environment that causes recidivism, mostly arising out of American hatred of the poor and of dark-skinned people.
[+] [-] randyrand|5 years ago|reply
This man got 6 years for murdering and dismembering his wife's father, at the direction of his wife, while the wife got 1 year for her role. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/No-prison-time-for...
[+] [-] oars|5 years ago|reply
Alcohol is the worst drug in the world.
[+] [-] paulcole|5 years ago|reply
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2015/06/man_sentenced_1...
[+] [-] screamingninja|5 years ago|reply
Murder as opposed to what?
[+] [-] chokeartist|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] siliconvict|5 years ago|reply
When I was 19, I didn't have a father or mother to send me books, but I managed to barter with other prisoners to get books to come in from the outside.
My primary focus was computer science rather than mathematics, and even though I didn't have a computer to work with, I wrote out all my programs on paper. Learning was slow, very slow.
When I got out, it took me 8 months to get a computer. I couldn't afford to buy one, so I bought it part by part and built one myself, even though I never had done it before.
Fast forward 20 years, I'm a multimillionaire, successful startup founder, and two IPOs deep. I think my success came from the anger I felt in prison. Nothing could be worse than serving time, I told myself, and it made me very ambitious because of it.
Reading Travis' letter and seeing his DOC number at the bottom of it made me feel all those painful, frustrated moments I had while serving time.
Best of luck to Travis. I will be contacting his father and sending what is allowed.
[+] [-] sillysaurusx|5 years ago|reply
Is there any society with no judicial system? Or is it an absolute requirement of any group of people over, say, 10,000?
[+] [-] aaomidi|5 years ago|reply
Punishing people for 15 years doesn't change drunk driving. If they were *thinking* before driving drunk, or contemplating the consequences, they wouldn't be driving drunk.
Edit: I think this puts it far better than I can: http://www.cscsb.org/restorative_justice/retribution_vs_rest...
[+] [-] throwaway894345|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilammy|5 years ago|reply
What those consequences be if the society does not punish people for that? (where “punishment” isn’t necessarily prison time)
You can’t bring back dead people to life, unfortunately. For some other crimes you can be fined, make amendments in other ways, having your license revoked, etc. But not for manslaughter. For this crime any punishment is exerted only as a message to other people: don’t kill people or else those bad things will happen to you.
[+] [-] influx|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nogridbag|5 years ago|reply
"While he's on bond, he commits a strong-arm robbery down in Monroe stealing a fifth of whiskey"
[+] [-] koolba|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonwriter|5 years ago|reply
It absolutely prevents the particular actor from driving drunk for the period of actual incarceration. It may even make it more likely that they will think before doing it again, even if they did not think the first time; and if you argue that the people who would do it once aren’t rationally deterrable even by adverse experience, that makes long-duration incapacitation such as by incarceration even more critical.
[+] [-] mbrodersen|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hu3|5 years ago|reply
That family is done. There wont be a single day in their lives that they wont suffer.
If these crimes were handled lightly, they would occur more often.
[+] [-] abnry|5 years ago|reply
Most people are in favor of punitive justice, but for the "right" wrongs.
[+] [-] crb002|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] crb002|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alex_young|5 years ago|reply
The US has the highest total number of people in prison, as well as the highest per capita rate [0], and yet we still have high rates of crimes we throw people in jail for decades for.
Clearly this system isn’t having any deterrent impact, and it is having a huge cost to both the lives directly deprived of freedom and to the families around them.
[0] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2...
[+] [-] alphabettsy|5 years ago|reply
There are crimes of desperation and crimes of selfishness, most people I think have less tolerance for one than the other.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] julianmarq|5 years ago|reply
Then I came back here and read a few of the comments, particularly those by the new throwaway accounts (except for the top one). I shouldn't have read the comments, particularly those by the new throwaway accounts (and not because they might have changed my mind about the question and answers; they didn't, far from it).
[+] [-] rtyujkx|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IG_Semmelweiss|5 years ago|reply
I understand the need to prevent criminal activity via internet access, but that seems like a trivial technical problem... or is it ?
I'd think such an initiative would impact re-incarceration rates, which for the price of a few laptops, seems like a steal (pun intended)
[+] [-] naewonawonga|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawayboise|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newintellectual|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] martin1975|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tenacious_tuna|5 years ago|reply
Please don't do this. Think more before you speak.
[+] [-] edlebert|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhh__|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barnaclejive|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]