Ric Moore wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-01-15 at 23:53 -0500, Todd Zullinger wrote:
>
>> Firstly, Phil wasn't in prison. Certainly the US governments undue
>> harassment of him was a great burden on him, but it is not nearly
>> as harsh as prison would have been.
>
> That's a common misconception, prison would have actually been far
> easier for his classification type. He probably would have gone to
> minimum custody and work release right off the bat.
It was alleged here that he was restricted from using computers during
the time he was under investigation. I don't know if that's true or
not. Assuming it is, it's likely that the terms of any work release
he would have gotten would also included such a restriction. Thus,
he'd have the same hardships regarding making a living with the added
strain of having to serve some amount of time in prison. I don't know
how you feel, but I consider anyone locking me up and restricting my
comings and goings -- no matter how nice the place I am confined to is
-- as a major burden. It's even more atrocious when the person being
confined has not injured anyone (or anyone's property) at all.
> The stuff you see on TV is mostly Maximum-Custody for the purely
> pathological.
I've had friends sent to prison for things that damn well shouldn't be
illegal (and aren't illegal by any basic reading of the US
Constitution -- but you can't convince a dipshit judge of that). I
saw enough from visiting them to come to the conclusion that even
fairly low-security imprisonment was quite awful.
> Only a few live like that when you consider that 2.7 million are
> locked up.
Yep, sadly the US prison system could use McDonald's slogan: "Billions
served."
> The vast majority serve time in Medium or Minimum custody. Those
> will be released if they keep their noses clean, so they do. Ric
The vast majority of those in US prisons have no business being there
in the first place, under any level of custody. Certainly Phil
Zimmermann wouldn't have belonged there for writing software any more
than most others who have committed no real crimes (other than to break
laws that fly in the face of the written constitution that the
government supposedly derives its power from).
Sorry to go so far off topic. I just happen to get fairly agitated
about governments locking people up. Actually, I just get agitated
about governments in general, as I find them useless parasites of the
human race. :)
--
Todd OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called
upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
-- Oscar Wilde
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