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Comment by codezero | Hacker News Reader

Proud. The US prison system is oppressive garbage. Good for the inmates.

Exactly. Especially in Ohio. I remember years ago listening to the District Attorney of Cincinnati say he didn't believe in rehabilitation! WTF?

1% of Americans have been through the incarceration system. That's insane.

These guys are probably just going to be reprimanded and be given more time in prison, when really they should encourage their education and effort to push them to legit computer work when they leave.

..but once you have that criminal record, and are labelled as such, good luck getting anyone to hire you. The prison system in the US creates a lower class. Facilities where prisoners can earn below minimum wage is literally slave labour.

> 1% of Americans have been through the incarceration system. That's insane.

That's not quite correct. 1% of American adults are currently incarcerated. There's nearly 2.5M current prisoners, and the US total population is about 310M, so once you remove kids from that 'total pop' count...

Wouldn't that make the number higher then, if you're counting people that have been through the system? Some rough numbers from the US justice website say more than 650000 people are released from prison each year, and two thirds are back within another three years, which seems to me that a lot more than 1% touch the system.

Unfortunately, it's 4 in the morning, and I'd spend a good hour or so looking up better stats and figuring out the math, but I think my point stands.

It's his point too, and yes it stands.

Yes, sorry, I meant that the situation is actually worse than the GP suggested - the "1%" is "currently", not "ever".

Apparently 1 out of 3 of adults in the USA have an arrest record in the FBI database[1], which compiles the data from local records.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-arrest-records-rise-american...

I read that prisons in the US can actually make profit and have share holders. Perhaps these hacking inmates can work for the CIA on the cheap.

The United States has federal and state prisons. There are also private companies that run prisons. In the US, there are a mix of prisons that are run by the government and ones that are run by private companies. I know the CIA hacking thing sounds funny, but these guys were doing basic social engineering and identity theft.

There are private prison corporations that are incentivized by their shareholders and government contracts to keep as many prisoners inside as long as possible.

Except for them using it to steal other inmates identities.

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