Asked him what he was doing in a few days in the evening and he told me "can't hang out, I'm in prison." He's in prison in the evenings and every other weekend.

Gave him a ride to the prison too, we stopped for burgers and he was worried he was gonna be "late for prison."

He got arrested via letter.

I dunno, system and so on, but also just... That's funny. Remove systemic critique from your mind and just grasp the concept of being late for prison. Remove the rational thought too, because it kinda makes sense to let people be in prison part-time. It's super normal. Just... Part time prison. It's funny. It's like a guy turning himself into a pickle. Funniest shit I've ever seen.

Imagine getting arrested by letter. Wouldn't be me, I'm built different (I did get arrested by letter once actually, funniest shit. Didn't show up and my mom called the police to tell them off for sending me the letter lmao. She's not important, there's no calss thing, she's just a mom. They apologised to her lol)

I need to stress this is real.

Since a lot of people read this like it's in the US and it's the US system - It's not. It's one of those damn commie scandinavian countries

edit: Since a lot of people read this like it's in the US and it's the US system - It's not. It's one of those damn commie scandinavian countries

    • REgon [they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 month ago

      THANK YOU! Exactly what I'd been thinking! Especially combined with getting a letter that arrests you.

    • REgon [they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 month ago

      I asked him what would happen if he didn't make it in time and he told me "then they won't let me in!" i-cant

      Since a lot of people read this like it's in the US and it's the US system - It's not. It's one of those damn commie scandinavian countries

  • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]
    ·
    1 month ago

    I did weekend jail for MTR probation for being sixty dollars behind on fees.

    Six months of weekends, or 90 days in the hoosegow. Had to be there Friday by 545pm, released sundays 3pm.

    Strip searched every weekend. ‘Squat, lift yr sack and cough’. Spent weekends changing oil on cop cars, mowing city parks, and picking garbage up off the beach. All in jail stripes. I saw friends, people I went to school with, former coworkers, etc all while being followed by a fat man with a scattergun on a Mule and told to pick up trash faster or I could just stay for the week instead of being sent home Sundays.

    Great tines.

    • REgon [they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Was this before or after his culinary escapades?

  • MouthyHooker [she/her]
    ·
    1 month ago

    I used to dance at a strip club with a woman who was on work release from jail. She’d spend Monday-Friday in the jail, then get out on the weekends to strip, then report back to jail for forced labor during the week. This was maybe 2008-ish. (Thanks Obama)

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Phil Neel talks about these setups in his Hinterlands book. as he spent time in the clink in Washington I believe.

    it sounded fucked. like obviously people prefer it to losing their job and never being away from a shithole facility, but unless you have a support network you probably lose your living situation and possessions unless you have somewhere to keep em, and if you're "late" for any reason your sentence quickly shifted to full time or maybe you don't get to go to work that week and your boss fires you. and if there's any sort of organized action / collective punishment for the prison, they keep people on lockdown and they lose their job.

    unless of course it's an "understanding" employer who targets hiring carceral employees and exploits the shit out of their desperation.

    obviously, if you aren't fucked broke and have a family to support you and maybe you work for someone who will cut you slack for missed time due to prison shit, it's a good deal. if you're on the margins, it seems like a way to really squeeze people and make them even more compliant while keeping their labor active.

  • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    yet again, this exhibits the innate dissonances of the amerikkkan system of governance. on the one hand, here, mostly due to things like budget constraints and overcrowding rather than an interest in silly trifling matters such as human rights, we see the prison system acknowledge that the point is deprivation of freedom: anything beyond this is by definition an additional cruelty beyond imprisonment. but on the other hand, we have exceedingly long prison terms, and overcrowded prisons, etc. under the auspices of a synthetic desire for retribution/clearing "inherently dangerous" criminals from public contact for "security" reasons. there is nothing rehabilitative about either recourse (part-time prison or full-time prison) but the cruelty is a key component in keeping the mask on I think. as always, the dissonance is smoothed over with extreme and indiscriminate violence.

  • engineer [none/use name, any]
    ·
    1 month ago

    A couple years ago I worked with a guy who was on a work furlough program. He could drive from prison to work during a set time. Then he had to stay at the office during the work day. Then he could drive back to prison. He had to wear an ankle monitor the whole time. That was just for a couple months but it let him keep his job and not have a weird gap in his resume

  • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    1 month ago

    I lost touch with my father when I was maybe 8 years old. One of the few memories I have of the man was visiting him in "prison". But it wasn't prison. It was some sort of group home that he was sentenced to serve time in. I was too young to know any of the details, but I think it might have had something to do with allowing him to continue to work his job. Go figure lol.

  • FunkyStuff [he/him]
    ·
    1 month ago

    I'm not 100% convinced on the abolish prison stuff but if you got to the point that you need people to exert their own discipline and voluntarily turn themselves over to go to prison every evening I think you gotta think of another system.

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
      ·
      1 month ago

      Honestly, at least in any country other than America which I don't trust to not fuck it up, it's a much better approach to prison as rehabilitation than most places allow - it allows them to physically demonstrate remorse for the crime by showing up for their sentence, while leaving them with a lot of individual freedom.

      Like there's not really many crimes I think it's appropriate for - most of the crimes it would be applicable to shouldn't be crimes at all - but "send yourself to the naughty box" is pretty good for the current prison system.

      • FunkyStuff [he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        I just don't see why it should be prison at all at that point. Why not make it a vocational training facility at this point? Actually have the people learn skills that they could use to find employment instead of continuing to live off crime?

        I mean, I get that the core has deindustrialized so there really isn't much more space for the reserve army of labor to just find jobs, but at least train them on using Excel and working at a fake job!

        • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Vocational training is great for people doing crime because it's their only option, but less so for people who already have jobs and commit crimes of neglect or laziness - the ones which are most likely to feel remorse for their actions, rather than justified in doing what they needed to survive or just being remorseful they were caught. Like I said, very few crimes it's actually appropriate for, and vocational training would usually be better, but I still think it has its place.

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Sucks that people have to commute to prison when they could just WFH on house arrest with an ankle monitor.

  • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Ive only seen it come up in relation to child support, which it makes sense for sorta. Dad's not paying child support, put him in time out but don't remove his ability to make money and force him to give it to the mom kind of thing

    Might get used differently in other parts of the country