Minor Computer Flaw Frees State Prisoners 268
Ruvim writes "A Michigan State audit shows a software glitch let some prisoners get out early. From the article: 'The audit report shows errors in the release dates of 23 prisoners between October 2003 and March 2005. Some were let out early, while others were let out late... A flaw in computer programming caused State jails to release 8 prisoners anywhere from 39-161 days early, prisoners who were doing time for everything from embezzlement and drugs to bad check writing.'"
Gracious Me! (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I don't see the 'crisis' in this other than these people were low-level, non-violent offenders. If a software glitch had let a Ted Bundy out for another killing spree, I would probably be more concerned.
Fact is, we have WAAAAAY too many people in jail as it is. If we were to only charge and incarcerate those who pose a safety risk to the rest of society then you could probably monitor the entire population in half as many facilities with 1/3 of the correctional officers we have today.
The US incarcerates people largely to punish them for stuff they do to themselves. If someone is strung out on meth or heroin, they are only a problem to me if they steal something to support their habit. Considering the fact that theft is already a crime, I can't see how locking up people who are casual users and functioning addicts helps society at all.
These prison systems are getting too complex, too expensive, and are locking too many people away for "their own good".
Rep. Rick Jones: " 8 people is too many. I understand the department found another 15, that's too many, even 1 is too many."
Fuck that. Notice he shed no tears for the few that were held too long? I'm glad some of them got out early. The only sad thing in this story is that somebody got held longer than they should have.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:4, Insightful)
These prison systems are getting too complex, too expensive, and are locking too many people away for "their own good".
It's essentially the Catholic Justice System. You're locked away not so much because of offenses you commit that harm other people, but for offenses that upset god and baby jesus and mother mary and all that jazz. How else do you explain laws intended to punish 18 year olds having sex with same-sex 15 year olds with 17 years in prison, but punish 18 year olds having sex with female 15 year olds with 15 months in prison? It's all about morality and just because something is considered "immoral" by many doesn't make it harmful to anyone.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the Baptists would take exception at your excluding them from this party. They like controlling people too.
You're locked away not so much because of offenses you commit that harm other people, but for offenses that upset god and baby jesus and mother mary and all that jazz.
And it is only getting worse. Every year some dumbass politician screws the whole world up with just six simple words: "There ought to be a law!"
How else do you explain laws intended to punish 18 year olds having sex with same-sex 15 year olds with 17 years in prison, but punish 18 year olds having sex with female 15 year olds with 15 months in prison?
You can't. Neither can you rationalize incarcerating a person who does drugs, keeps their job, pays their taxes, and doesn't commit any other criminal offense. They *try* to rationalize it by claiming that "they need treatment" as though the criminal justice system is any substitute for medical therapy.
It's all about morality and just because something is considered "immoral" by many doesn't make it harmful to anyone.
Aye. That about sums it up.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
In other words, we have to make pot illegal because if you use pot you give your money to nasty people who would barely be in business if they weren't selling pot.
And we also have to control people's free time, because if we didn't then they wouldn't be doing what we wanted.
Interesting logic.
The only worth
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I'm not saying that everyone has to be monitored in their free time, and then smacked for every little rule they break. If drug use really has no effect then it won't reach the treshold where it needs a deterrent. It often does though, and is discovered by someone who reports it to the police / social workers etc, because it caused a problem, either for someones child, themselves or because they were being a general nuisance. If s
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, most drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) are detrimental to one's time/revenue ratio, which is a reason to legislate against them. But "if people buy this stuff the money goes to bad people" is not, because the money only goes to bad people because no one else can sell the stuff.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I don't believe you meant that, did you? Popcorn, eh? Whoo-ee, that is pricey stuff. With a quick search I can find it at £1.27 *per kilo*. And with the amount it expands on cooking, that would probably last about 2 or 3 years of regular popcorn eating.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Then you should be against prohibition. The Italian and Irish organized crime organizations of the early 20th Century were just a minor nuisance until alcohol prohibition made them rich.
And if it became accepted to do crack, and more people did it, less cool stuff would be done in the real world, because m
Well, sorta... (Score:2, Interesting)
Just my prospective: personally, I think abusing anything of any kind (drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, Japanese school girl panties vending machines, whatever) is bad for the mind and body--but also for any kind of close relation, especially children... Without getting into morals and that crap, my argument is based on the relative
Re:Well, sorta... (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I guess that depends on what you consider 'conservative'.
I don't consider using the goverment to force people into treatment to be a 'conservative' value.
If you are looking for the *conservative* view of prohibition, just read a selection of works by a *real* conservative, William F. Buckley, Jr. [nationalreview.com]
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Use alcohol as a model. The only time you are arrested is for what you do when you are drunk (i.e., driving while intoxicated, fighting), not because you drank alcohol.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Wait, can I change my opinion from prohibition=good to 'let's try the alcohol model' just like that? Scary...
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
This is a good argument against participation in the illegal drug trade. Black market activities of many sorts involve giving money to unsavory people who do bad things with it. It would be much better if there were some way to funnel all that meth/crack/weed money into law-abiding, tax-paying businesses.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you want to live in a free society or not? If you want a free society, then you have to believe that it is ok for people to do crack or "cool stuff", as long as that's what they wanted to do (and they didn't truly injure a non-consenting th
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
And I never said I wanted to live in anarchy. The free society I described wasn't anarchy. I said people in such a society should be free to do whatever they want IF "they didn't truly injure a non-consenting third party in
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't really think there's a huge public safety hazard concerning weed (no more than alcohol, anyway, and generally only connected with driving), but there may be an economic productivity incentive to keep peop
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, so you're one of those "smoking pot leads to twin towers being blown up" theorists? Always good to get your opinions on drugs from mass-marketing media.
And if it became accepted to do crack, and more people did it, less cool stuff would be done in the real world, because more people would have f
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:4, Insightful)
Law is an external deposit of morality. Your idea of deciding if something is immoral is testing to see if it hurts someone. You want law to minimize suffering. You think suffering is a Bad thing (absolute moral qualifier). There are a lot of people who think morality is different. You not only look down upon their beliefs, but also think that your way is better. That your version of morality is better. Sounds like you're the same type of person as those other people
To speak more specifically on the idea of incarcerating adults (18 year olds) who have sex with minors (less than 18 years old), you could always consider the utilitarian argument. For the most part, 18 year olds have a chance at economic freedom, the ability to support themselves independent of their parents -- a productive member of a capitalist society. A minor does not necessarily have that same freedom (because of other laws, like child labor laws). That restriction is important because it sends a clear signal to those tempted to drop out of school that there will be barriers (and also theoretically involves the parents, implying a certain strength of the family). Why would you drop out of school? Because you're pregnant or because you're suffering from the emotional and psychological issues generated from considering and implementing abortion. High school drop outs usually are a liability to society, unable to produce much with their lives (they influence limited amounts of happiness). That family having to support their child for a longer period of time will spend less money. Furthermore, this effects the amount of retirement funds allocated to the family and to the child. A high school graduate will not be able to put in as much into the social security system as a college graduate. This stresses an already stressed (perhaps even broken) system. This law is in support of family. And that isn't just a moral statement, but a measurable economic factor as well. Japan is beginning to show signs of familial breakdown and their health system is having to support more people in their old-age. Same for Europe.
Don't assume the problem is so small.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
Law and morality, althoug related, are not the same thing. If you think that actions which don't harm othe
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it's the Corporate Justice System. Prisoners make fine cheap laborers [inthesetimes.com] for a good number of American corporations, as well as a profit center for said corporations and privately run correctional facilities. Now do you understand why having some reefer is an imprisonable offense? It's always the dollars. (Not surprisingly, Tom DeLay has profitted from prison profit centers. Hopefully someone will now profit from his imminent incarceration...)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Writers of bad checks are gravely dangerous to society. They hurt the economy. And yes, that is very important -- unless you are prepared to argue against locking up rogue CEOs too.
The reason this bug did not let any serious crooks out early is, probably, because there is more hum
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I never said that they had *no* impact on society, but measured against violent offenders, check kiters are peanuts.
You also forgot to mention that people like mega-corp CEOs will do more damage to the economy than the average check kiter. How much time do all of the convicted CEOs do collectivly? I'll bet it is only a fraction of what your average petty thief gets. That kind of differential only makes the public more suspicious of the criminal justice
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I'd amend this to say 'deterrance only works when the vast majority of people respect others rights or the legitamacy of the system.'
I don't refrain from killing people because it's 'against the law.' I don't do it because it's immoral.
Deterrance can be effective in picking up the stragglers, the one in 500 people who writes bad checks, etc.
Deterrance is much more difficult when used against loose organizations of determined people, though, as oppose
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
It's not about laws, leadership, truth, or democracy... It's about how much can I get my name in the press and in front of voters so they
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
How much less could he care? A lot less? So, since he could care less, that means that he does care more about the innocent in jail than he does about other things (though you're not saying which).
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
At stake is the integrity of the system. It can just as well release a Ted Bundy early, or keep someone an extra decade.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
How so?
At stake is the integrity of the system.
When we reach the point where we need sophisticated computer systems to track release dates for the number of prisoners we have, then perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the criminal justice system.
I guess the number of people we incarcerate is irrelevant to you? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you've offered criticism without showing me where I've confused the issue.
If we incarcerated only a couple of thousand prisone
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
At issue is the INTEGRITY of the computer system, which keeps track of when a prisoner is allowed out. If it's so buggy that it lets criminals out early, it can also keep prisoners longer than it should.
However, just because a computer system has bugs doesn't mean you should go and throw the baby out with the bath water. Instead you fix the system and apply
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I guess expecting you to explain your points is a "motive".
You just don't want prison to exist, so that all these violent criminals can be let out and free to terrorize the country.
And I can also assume that you are a retard in that my earliest post specifically excluded any discussion of releasing violent criminals.
(ploink!)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Scientists Discover Color That Is Neither Black Nor White
Todey, Joseph Sixpack from the National Institute For Research Into Things That Are Black And White (NIFRITTABAW) an
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
I guess you can't read. I said non-violent offenders.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
That reminds me of a funny headline in the NYTimes. Paraphrased it said:
Jails overflowing despite record low crime rates!"
I doubled over laughing. The Times brainiacs actually didn't understand how the jails could have so many people in them when crime was down so much. Obviously, they deduced, this proved that the Bush administration was locking up innocent people. In reality they were actually too stupid (or blinded by their biases) to real
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, crime is down for several categories of the penal code. But if you keep adding categories, then the jails will never see a decrease in prison population.
There are too many offenses that require jail time.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Why must you angry right-wing nutjobs flap your arms about misrepresenting liberals as a bunch of idiots to make yourselves look right? You are so obviously attacking a straw man, it's not even funny.
And I fail to see what high prison occupancy
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately, some people who are not dangerous are not detered by anything short of prison. Even after some prison time, some will still repeat the offense. Look up Maricopa County's Tent City Jail.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
How many of those repeat offenders are drug cases? How many are property violations? How many are violent offenders?
My point is that if someone is only harming themselves, why should I be asked to shell out my hard-earned cash to lock them up? I'd rather they were holding down a job, helping grow the economy, and paying their OWN fucking taxes.
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Re:Gracious Me! (Score:2)
Lighten up already.
These "conservatives" just get worse and worse. Starting to make the commies and trots look enlightened and fun loving.
If I had to code such thing... (Score:3, Funny)
Consolation. (Score:5, Funny)
It must have been Linux (Score:4, Funny)
I am sorry. Very sorry.
Re:It must have been Linux (Score:2)
Minor Flaw? (Score:3, Insightful)
When the nuke password... (Score:2, Funny)
For example (Score:2)
Re:Minor Flaw? (Score:2, Insightful)
When a stock market crashes.
When a smartbomb hits a daycare.
When people are given the wrong blood type at the hospital.
This is minor, no bones about it.
Re:Minor Flaw? (Score:2)
But this system doesn't manage the stock market, guide smartbombs, or manage blood banks. It's a supposed to manage a prison population's incarceration terms. Given that, flaws don't really get any more major than getting those terms wrong. I suppose they could have been off by MORE time, but imprisoning someone for even a day longer than the courts decided was appropriate for their crime is MAJORLY wrong.
Re:Minor Flaw? (Score:2)
Minor glitch ? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not saying that mistakes don't happen, but that's bad! Fortunately no one like John Wayne Gayce was let out mistakenly.
What are the odds that the 'software glitch' has a SSN and enjoys fast food?
Re:Minor glitch ? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Minor glitch ? (Score:2)
No, while bankers might be criminals, the point was that even if the mistake was something so small as my bank account, I'd get a different bank. Letting criminals go early is bad, and letting them go late is a crime in its own right, though some might disagree.
Re:Minor glitch ? (Score:2)
No, bankers and criminals, it looks like.
Re:Minor glitch ? (Score:2)
Don't you mean:
use Hot::Grits qw(statue_of_natalie_portman
now if only..... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:now if only..... (Score:2)
Doing time for bad code writing was not mentioned.
Well... (Score:3, Interesting)
Storage Issues (Score:2)
Right now the jails are fighting for adequate storage space for the inmates. We could put the paper files in the jail cells to promote literacy. Once you learn to rea
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Obligatory Remix (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Remix (Score:2)
Released prisoners late? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Released prisoners late? (Score:4, Insightful)
More technical information? (Score:3)
Indeed, we need more technical details.
Re:More technical information? (Score:2)
You'll need to pay $375.00 for the PDF with any details.
Summary of PDF someone linked (Score:5, Informative)
The problem seems to be more than software or hardware. A state law created a sentence-length committee or ruleset that was not fully communicated to the Department of Corrections (DOC). The DOC tried to interpret the information they had and came up with a manual for calculating a prisoner's release date. This manual includes two non-automated methods of calculating a simple release date, and some informal rules for calculating release dates in general. The DOC later wrote (or contracted out the writing of) the program that automatically calculates release dates.
The audit being reported compared the computer computation with the two non-automated methods and found that none of the three gave the same results. Not only was the software inconsistant with the manual, but the manual was self-inconsistant. The software may have actually used the right calculation, but the audit seemed unable to determine what the right calculation was (because of the confusing state law mentioned earlier).
Re:Summary of PDF someone linked (Score:2)
Re:Summary of PDF someone linked (Score:2)
Programmer was obviously just having some fun with (Score:2, Funny)
The opposite happened In Dallas TX (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The opposite happened In Dallas TX (Score:2, Troll)
A "holding cell" designed for 63 people - who says the US isn't a 3rd world country.
Re:The opposite happened In Dallas TX (Score:3, Insightful)
Let out late... (Score:3, Insightful)
Human rights issues (Score:3, Insightful)
IANAL So Questions For Those Who Know (Score:2)
Re:IANAL So Questions For Those Who Know (Score:3, Informative)
Re:IANAL So Questions For Those Who Know (Score:2)
"PAY X AMOUNT TO THE ORDER OF X PERSON."
That sounds like an order to someone, not a promise. IE, it doesnt say "I have sufficient funds in this negotiable draft account to pay this person X amount, and X person should be allowed to withdraw this amount on demand." If that's what they want me to agree to, then my check should have to say that. It says it for credit cards...
Re:IANAL So Questions For Those Who Know (Score:2)
You know (Score:2)
computer flaw? how about organisation flaw? (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Why don't they check the (paper!) documents they got from the judge or whoever to check if they really were sheduled to go out that day?
2. Why didn't those let out late complain? I'm sure the first thing they did when they got there, was circling the date they were sheduled to get out on their calender. (or whatever paper they have handy). How can they not notice that they passed that date by x weeks?
This story as usually raises more questions than it answers...
OT rant: Damn you, shallow news outlets! If a plane crashes, we get every small detail about what happened on which second, and what systems failed, but when it's about computer problems, all they can tell us is a 'glitch' or a 'crash' happened because they think it would be 'too technical'. Just tell exactly what the problem was, and if people don't understand completely, it's not going to kill them.
The story is -way- to vague... (Score:3, Interesting)
Was it a contractor or an in-house developed project would also be interesting. As well as what happened to the inmates who were released late? Is it just "tough luck" for them?
Does anyone have any additional information?
reminds me of several other... (Score:2)
I haven't RTFA...ed ... but (Score:2)
Oh... what's the mantra for opensource again?
If only... (Score:2)
Re:If only... (Score:2)
Perhaps this shold be added to the "No Warranty" section of GPL V3.
Someone should remind Representative Rick Jones... (Score:3, Insightful)
This would suck... (Score:4, Funny)
"No, actually, it says here that you're scheduled for execution. Any last requests?"
Wow... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:hmmm (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Terrible representative (Score:5, Funny)
No; he really meant bad Czech writers. It was a reference to Tedd Sallay and Josef Simanek.