The new and improved federal retirement program

[tod evans]

3 hots and a cot, free medical and dental, cable Tee-Vee free weights and a library....

Socialist utopia.


FBI: Woman robbed Wyoming bank to return to prison

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/29/fbi-woman-robbed-wyoming-bank-to-return-to-prison.html


A woman who was recently released from prison in Oregon robbed a bank in Wyoming only to throw the cash up in the air outside the building and sit down to wait for police, authorities said Friday.

Investigators say 59-year-old Linda Patricia Thompson told them she wanted to go back to prison.

Thompson said she had suffered facial fractures after strangers beat her at a Cheyenne park last weekend.

She said she couldn't get a room at a homeless shelter and decided to rob the bank Wednesday because she could no longer stay on the streets, court records say.

She faces a detention hearing Tuesday on a bank robbery charge and doesn't have an attorney yet.

FBI Special Agent Tory Smith said in court documents that Thompson entered a US Bank branch in Cheyenne and handed a teller a cardboard note that said, "I have a gun. Give me all your money."

The teller turned over thousands of dollars.

Outside, Thompson threw money into the air and even offered some to people passing by, Smith stated. He added that Cheyenne police Lt. Nathan Busek said he found Thompson with a large sum of money when he arrived at the bank.

"Lt. Busek asked Thompson what was going on, and Thompson replied, 'I just robbed the bank, I want to go back to prison,'" Smith wrote.

Thompson had been serving time at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, for a second-degree robbery conviction in Union County until her release in June, Betty Bernt, communications manager with the Oregon Department of Corrections, said Friday.

Thompson told investigators then that she didn't want to be released and advised the Oregon state parole office that she would not do well on parole.

An attempt to reach Thompson's parole officer for comment wasn't successful on Friday.

[presence]

These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Nuff time passes, you get so you depend on 'em. That's institutionalized.


"Red" The Shawshank Redemption (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption_%28film%29)

[presence]

This situation left me pondering the notion of "refrigerator mother theory"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory)


profound institutional privation can result in quasi-autistic symptoms

and the effects of Harlow's experiments on the Pit of Despair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair

The technical name for the new depression chamber was "vertical chamber apparatus," though Harlow himself insisted on calling it the "pit of despair." He had at first wanted to call it the "dungeon of despair," and also used terms like "well of despair," and "well of loneliness." Blum writes that his colleagues tried to persuade him not to use such descriptive terms, that a less visual name would be easier, politically speaking. Gene Sackett of the University of Washington (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Washington) in Seattle, one of Harlow's doctoral students who went on to conduct additional deprivation studies, said, "He first wanted to call it a dungeon of despair. Can you imagine the reaction to that?"[9] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair#cite_note-9)
Most of the monkeys placed inside it were at least three months old and had already bonded with others. The point of the experiment was to break those bonds in order to create the symptoms of depression. The chamber was a small, metal, inverted pyramid, with slippery sides, slanting down to a point. The monkey was placed in the point. The opening was covered with mesh. The monkeys would spend the first day or two trying to climb up the slippery sides. After a few days, they gave up. Harlow wrote, "most subjects typically assume a hunched position in a corner of the bottom of the apparatus. One might presume at this point that they find their situation to be hopeless."[10] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair#cite_note-Blum1994.2F218-10) Stephen J. Suomi, another of Harlow's doctoral students, placed some monkeys in the chamber in 1970 for his PhD. He wrote that he could find no monkey who had any defense against it. Even the happiest monkeys came out damaged. He concluded that even a happy, normal childhood was no defense against depression.
The experiments delivered what science writer Deborah Blum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Blum) has called "common sense results," namely, that monkeys, normally very social animals in nature, emerge from isolation badly damaged, and that some recover while others do not.[11] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair#cite_note-11)

[presence]

cable Tee-Vee free weights and a library....

perhaps if these perks were earned; commissary tokens gained through completing manual/mental labor task, etc. they would come out of the situation learning "hard work = reward" instead of "pit of despair feeds you; no action can improve upon it" I don't think its unreasonable to require prisoners to unload pallets or pick up trash if they want meat for dinner. Of course the notion is tempered by the fact that most of the people in prison are there for victimless crimes; but even then... if falsely imprisoned it would still seem more humane to offer a work paradigm to better oneself.

[tod evans]

perhaps if these perks were earned; commissary tokens gained through completing manual/mental labor task, etc. they would come out of the situation learning "hard work = reward" instead of "pit of despair feeds you; no action can improve upon it" I don't think its unreasonable to require prisoners to unload pallets or pick up trash if they want meat for dinner. Of course the notion is tempered by the fact that most of the people in prison are there for victimless crimes; but even then... if falsely imprisoned it would still seem more humane to offer a work paradigm to better oneself.

Granting the ability to punish prisoners even more for arbitrary reasons to known sadistic government employees doesn't make sense to me.

[presence]

Granting the ability to punish prisoners even more for arbitrary reasons to known sadistic government employees doesn't make sense to me.

the whole state prisoner of the prison state paradigm is one of those built-on-a-foundation-of-fucked issues

perhaps not; smdh

[Ender]

perhaps if these perks were earned; commissary tokens gained through completing manual/mental labor task, etc. they would come out of the situation learning "hard work = reward" instead of "pit of despair feeds you; no action can improve upon it" I don't think its unreasonable to require prisoners to unload pallets or pick up trash if they want meat for dinner. Of course the notion is tempered by the fact that most of the people in prison are there for victimless crimes; but even then... if falsely imprisoned it would still seem more humane to offer a work paradigm to better oneself.

Ex-prisoners are never forgiven; their records are there forever and they cannot get a decent job- not even with McDonalds or Walmart.

They are felons for the rest of their lives.

[tod evans]

Ex-prisoners are never forgiven; their records are there forever and they cannot get a decent job- not even with McDonalds or Walmart.

They are felons for the rest of their lives.

Now that's total and utter bullshit.

I've known many ex-cons over the years and to a man/woman they were gainfully employed in skilled labor positions, none at McDonalds or Wally-World though so you might be right on that count.

[angelatc]

Ex-prisoners are never forgiven; their records are there forever and they cannot get a decent job- not even with McDonalds or Walmart.

They are felons for the rest of their lives.

I personally know two people who went to prison and served hard time for killing people. Both of them got decent jobs when they got out of prison. How can that be?

I will say that I do not know a lot of people who were convicted of felonies. I used to live in a bad neighborhood though, and knew more then. Alcohol and drugs were much bigger issues than shunning.

[Ender]

Now that's total and utter bull$#@!.

I've known many ex-cons over the years and to a man/woman they were gainfully employed in skilled labor positions, none at McDonalds or Wally-World though so you might be right on that count.

Not utter Bullshit.

Have a good friend that committed a small misdemeanor, was not even arrested- paid his fine and has never been able to get it off his record- can't get hired at a decent job and tried to commit suicide because he was such a failure and has never been "forgiven" by the system.

This is a fact and is true for many people.

[tod evans]

Not utter Bullshit.

Have a good friend that committed a small misdemeanor, was not even arrested- paid his fine and has never been able to get it off his record- can't get hired at a decent job and tried to commit suicide because he was such a failure and has never been "forgiven" by the system.

This is a fact and is true for many people.

And I know several small business owners with multiple felony convictions.

It's more the measure of the man.

Unless you consider "decent jobs" government employment? Or government approved employment?

Sucks for your friend, has he taken it upon himself to learn a marketable skill?

[Ender]

And I know several small business owners with multiple felony convictions.

It's more the measure of the man.

Unless you consider "decent jobs" government employment? Or government approved employment?

Sucks for your friend, has he taken it upon himself to learn a marketable skill?

It's different to own a business- to be hired, most places require a background check.

And, this is nothing to do with gov jobs- he even went to court to have it expunged and was denied because he had been stopped for driving w/o insurance. He was driving a friend's car to a job and the insurance was paid but not showing to the police. Has to have a perfect driving record for 3 years to get it erased.

Welcome to 'Murica.

[tod evans]

So has your friend taken it upon himself to learn marketable skills?