Just give them computers already...

What is with this BS idea of medieval jail conditions...

qingcharles 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

They had computers in one place I was in, but not connected to the Net, just for doing some basic word processing and typing tutorials.

I found the C# compiler that is hidden several levels deep by default in the Windows directory and decided to teach the other prisoners how to code. I needed some reference materials as it's really hard when you have no docs and literally just the compiler. They don't allow computer books in most places "for security reasons", but a very elderly nun took pity on me and asked me what I wanted. I told her "C# Weekend Crash Course" (I wasn't a C# dev at the time and it was the only title I could think of) and she bought it off Amazon and smuggled in not only the book but the CD-ROM that came with it, bless her. I managed to teach the guys how to write text adventures which they enjoyed. I couldn't think of what else fun I could get them to do with only console text in/out.

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nextaccountic 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I couldn't think of what else fun I could get them to do with only console text in/out.

maybe specialized calculators that ask some parameters (like "how many days" etc) and run some formulas

could even be useful for something

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qingcharles 3 days ago | parent [-]

I wish I'd had a bunch of those BASIC programming books from the 8-bit home computer era, they had a ton of fun games based only on simple console input and output.

	▲	anthk 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		You can just run bwbasic today (or blassic) and clone the Basic Computer Games from https://github.com/GReaperEx/bcg https://github.com/John-Titor/bwbasic

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anthk 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Well, Scoundrel/Donsol it's a game that can be run with just a deck of cards, and porting it to C# it's a trivial task from ANSI C with simple arithmetic:

https://codeberg.org/luxferre/scoundrel-ports

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glerk 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Their thinking is that making the conditions bad will serve as deterrent i.e. would-be criminals would think twice before committing crimes because they're scared of going to prison.

Of course, this makes no sense, as most criminals have low impulse control and don't think about the consequences of their actions in terms of risk/reward calculations. We should use prison time to re-educate these people and try to make them better instead of psychologically torturing them, but here we are, and it's very unlikely things can change within the current political system (too many "checks and balances" for meaningful reforms)

	▲	queenkjuul 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Not to mention the risk/reward ratio is heavily skewed by the lack of prospects for ex-cons. Once you're in, you got nothing to lose, really.
	▲	coldtea 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		>Of course, this makes no sense, as most criminals have low impulse control and don't think about the consequences of their actions in terms of risk/reward calculations. Also there are decades and decades of this idea not working out at all...

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flomo 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Ok, here's your tablet!

https://epic.org/free-prison-tablets-in-promise-and-in-pract...