Man Released From Prison After 37 Years Baffled by Smartphones (nbcnews.com) 148
Last year at least 18 U.S. states began releasing prisoners close to the ends of their sentences or elderly/medically vulnerable prisoners at greater risk of contracting Covid-19, reports NBC News.
So after 37 years in prison, Renaldo Hudson was in for a surprise: He was handed a Samsung smartphone, a piece of technology that wouldn't have been imaginable to an American in 1983. "People would say things like they were so simple." said Hudson, 57. "'Listen, go to your browser and open this up.' I'm like, 'Who is the browser?'"
Hudson, like many people who leave prison after lengthy sentences, quickly realized he had entered a new world, one dependent on technology and innovation. The challenge he faced has been amplified in the past year as the Covid-19 pandemic has driven many more parts of life online. Many of the social services and job programs that former prisoners rely on to successfully re-enter their communities are inaccessible without a comprehensive knowledge of the internet. Advocates say that's an issue that can be overlooked by organizations meant to help, and former inmates sometimes struggle to adapt to decades of technological innovations that passed them by while they served time.
In 1983, when Hudson was imprisoned, cellular phones weighed about 2 pounds and were larger than bricks...
There are essential services many prisoners returning home need access to immediately, like health insurance, food stamps, medical care, job opportunities and state-issued identification. Before the pandemic, people could physically go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a social services office or a staffing agency. Now, everything is online, and the obstacles in the way of gaining access to those services are far greater.
The article reports that Hudson has now also discovered the internet.
"It connected me to the world on a level that I couldn't have imagined."
So after 37 years in prison, Renaldo Hudson was in for a surprise: He was handed a Samsung smartphone, a piece of technology that wouldn't have been imaginable to an American in 1983. "People would say things like they were so simple." said Hudson, 57. "'Listen, go to your browser and open this up.' I'm like, 'Who is the browser?'"
Hudson, like many people who leave prison after lengthy sentences, quickly realized he had entered a new world, one dependent on technology and innovation. The challenge he faced has been amplified in the past year as the Covid-19 pandemic has driven many more parts of life online. Many of the social services and job programs that former prisoners rely on to successfully re-enter their communities are inaccessible without a comprehensive knowledge of the internet. Advocates say that's an issue that can be overlooked by organizations meant to help, and former inmates sometimes struggle to adapt to decades of technological innovations that passed them by while they served time.
In 1983, when Hudson was imprisoned, cellular phones weighed about 2 pounds and were larger than bricks...
There are essential services many prisoners returning home need access to immediately, like health insurance, food stamps, medical care, job opportunities and state-issued identification. Before the pandemic, people could physically go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a social services office or a staffing agency. Now, everything is online, and the obstacles in the way of gaining access to those services are far greater.
The article reports that Hudson has now also discovered the internet.
"It connected me to the world on a level that I couldn't have imagined."
Gordon Gekko nailed it (Score:3)
So, like the first 26 seconds of this [youtube.com].
Remember when (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Remember when (Score:5, Funny)
President Bush was baffled by the checkout at the grocery. Might have been the same thing.
I think there is a fairly large difference between the two but lets explore it, for it to be the same thing it would make it one of the two possibilities:
1. The prisoner was so wealthy in jail to had emploiees that did all of his mobile phone operation for him
Or
2. President Bush was locked up for so long he missed the invention of grocery store checkups.
WHat one do you think it is?
Re:Remember when (Score:5, Informative)
President Bush was baffled by the checkout at the grocery. Might have been the same thing.
No, because he wasn't baffled:
AP Was There: Bush’s bum rap on ‘amazing’ barcode scanner [apnews.com]
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We all appreciate you taking the side of powerful politicians and the upper-class media and telling off the little guy. Speak truth to the powerless!
How about just speaking truth to everyone, regardless of class, etc.?
Hared to remember things that did not happen (Score:2)
The Bushes are awful in my opinion. I really can think of very few positives for that elitist family. The fact that somebody is truly awful does not, however, justify lies about them.
The "Bush baffled/amazed by barcode reader" thing was a lie - look it up at any non-warped-leftist sites. Bush was being shown (stupidly, in front of a hostile press corps) a new, improved register and the presenters were trying to explain its new features to him. Every politician has this happen to them at some point - they ma
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So you’re saying that Hillary Clinton killed dozens of people with a bar code scanner. Got it.
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Porn (Score:4, Funny)
Wait until he finds out that the internet is 90% porn.
90% porn seems high - there's also advertising! (Score:2)
...
for porn
Re: 90% porn seems high - there's also advertising (Score:2)
"Hey baby. Did you just get out of prison and need to? learn how to use the internet. I'love show you how to 'upload'. ;)"
It's like these ads are just for me!
Re:90% porn seems high - there's also advertising! (Score:4, Funny)
Where the hell is that malware-laden bot hawking hookers when you need it? The ONE time "i've ben a bad girl i need 2 be punsishd" would be welcomed.
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Wait until he finds out that the internet is 90% porn.
That percentage seems a bit low ...
57 so retiring in less than 10 years (Score:1)
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Hope he had a 401k to do some compounding magic or else he is in trouble, no way you can prepare for retirement in 10 years unless you make a banksy or rob a bank or something
A 401k? Are you serious? Even if he somehow worked at a place that had one in 1983 (extremely unlikely), then maybe he put like $500 into it.
Re: 57 so retiring in less than 10 years (Score:2)
Yeah I am sure prison had 401k match on their 8 cents an hour salary.
Language shortcuts ... (Score:3)
"'Listen, go to your browser and open this up.' I'm like, 'Who is the browser?'"
Some of this is caused by the language shortcuts we all take using well-known idioms, like "go to the browser" instead of "start/launch the browser application", the former which he apparently hasn't been exposed to.
For example, I'm a software engineer and system administrator and my wife was an English teacher so I often had to translate computer/tech speak to teacher (regular people) speak for more technical things rather than trying to "bring her up to speed" all at once...
Re:Language shortcuts ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the article is either exaggerating or leaving something out. People smuggle smart phones into prison all the time, and they actually do have television there that will show modern programs where the actors are using smartphones. So unless the person was in solitary the entire time, they will have run across the concept.
Now, knowing how to actually *use* something you've only seen on TV is a different matter.
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They could of course use Free software, and the icon could be labeled "Internet Browser".
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What a prisoner can do with a computer in prison is normally pretty limited though. Most people in their daily lives use personal computers as entertainment or communication devices, functions which will often not be available or applicable in a prison. Picture a library computer from the 80s, except without the ability to run BASIC. Likely a word processor / library book tracking thing.
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That's part, but as someone introducing a person to their first smartphone. There's a lot of muscle memory habits like swipe and drag and drop as well as pinch and zoom among others they don't have. Also there's some adjustments for those with elderly problems like diminishing sight and hearing that make smartphones harder to learn.
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In 1983, most people didn't have a PC at home and nobody had the internet at home. Of the people who did have a PC, only some of them had a modem. If you did have a modem, it was to access a text only application like a BBS. DOS was more likely than Windows as the OS.
Even if you were one of the few connected to DARPAnet at work, there was no www.
Prison is a punishment (Score:3, Interesting)
Part of the punishment is being unplugged from society. And apparently being gawked at by people who weren't when you're plugged back in.
Re:Prison is a punishment (Score:5, Insightful)
Prison is a punishment
I'm good with that. But either put them away for life if there is no hope of rehabilitation, or prepare them to become functioning members of society once again. Punishment is only part of it, there is also retribution, prevention (as in: people in jail aren't going to bother citizens in the street any more), and rehabilitation. The latter is important if you are not prepared to throw away the key, and don't want to see these people back inside shortly after they are discharged.
Re: Prison is a punishment (Score:2)
Some people can be rehabilitated, others can't. There is no way to run an ethical experiment to rigorously determine whether any proposed method of sifting the wheat from the chaff is accurate to a reasonable degree, for whatever value of reasonable you choose.
The "prison as punishment, period" model is one imperfect approach in the absence of data. The "prison as rehabilitated for all" model (aka the penitentiary movement, as in the Christian concept of penance) was another model that ended up having more
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I'm not convinced penitentiaries ever lived up to their name. Mostly they seem to be just a nicer way to say steel cage. The thing is, we all pay the price. First because prisons are a particularly expensive way to house someone and second, we spend years teaching people how NOT to behave as a functional contributor to society then toss them out into the street to do whatever damage they might do, ultimately obligating ourselves to provide the most expensive possible room and board again.
You don't get to sp
Re: Prison is a punishment (Score:2)
Some people don't need to be taught that society is their enemy. These tend to be the same people who end up in prisons.
Like I said, I'm open to alternatives, but it can't just be another faith-based effort that ends up with the new boss same as the old boss like the penitentiary movement was, and letting people out assuming the goodness of their nature will take hold is exactly such a faith-based approach.
In the absense of data justifying a change in tactics, I see no compelling reason to change tactics.
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Sweden has had a lot of success. No faith required, they have hard data.
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Sheltered. (Score:2)
Last year at least 18 U.S. states began releasing prisoners close to the ends of their sentences or elderly/medically vulnerable prisoners at greater risk of contracting Covid-19, reports NBC News.
Medical situation isn't much better out here.
"How is he going to outdo me?" (Score:2)
Adorable and priceless.
Re: "How is he going to outdo me?" (Score:2)
Kids brain is probably fried for life. Not cute at all.
Just another way the DOC is broken (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's an idea: if they know someone is going to be paroled or are close to being released because they've served their time, why don't they have some sort of classes to kickstart the reintegration into society of these long-term convicts?
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That's crazy talk!
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Why do prisons need to make money in the first place? Wait, you say prisons are like businesses but with a license for legal slave labour? No wonder U.S. society is f*cked up!
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The thinking goes that if there's a profit motive, prison operators will have the incentive to provide the best prison services for the lowest possible price, thus saving the taxpayers money.
Naturally - as with virtually all real-world implementations of free-market based strategies - this is so utterly ridiculous the people who came up with the idea deserve to be in those prisons more than most of the current inmates.
The worst part is everybody knows how ridiculous it is, but they go along with that explan
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Besides, "37 years" being "early"? Did he kill someone; will he use his new Internet powers for good or e -vill? My Spidey sense is tingling.
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Maybe he should figure it out like we all had to do.
..yeah, maybe you should go and do a little basic research on the challenges that ex-convicts face when trying to adjust to 'life on the outside' -- and how many of them end up literally committing a crime again just so they can go back in, where they understand how things are and can cope.
If we literally were just throwing people away for committing felonies then why do we bother keeping anyone alive? May as well just have the death penalty for everything above a misdemeanor-level offense. We're supposed
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To outsiders, it's a shame, but I wouldn't move here. Unless you're on the dole.
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Life without parole should mean life without parole. Ever. Under no circumstances. Just gives ammunition to people who want to keep the death penalty when you release prisoners on parole who are in for life without parole.
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yeah, maybe you should go and do a little basic research on the challenges that ex-convicts face when trying to adjust to 'life on the outside'
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I don't have time for other people's problems when I have arms full of my own right now. Learning about smart phones (which I don't own!) and the Internet seems trivial--the vast majority of us learned these things on our own, if we wanted to.
That said, as far as rehabilitation goes, if I were king, I'd make it mandatory that additional X number of years (1? 2?) of further formal education should be required before any release, reinforcing the concept that mindfulness
Re:Just another way the DOC is broken (Score:5, Interesting)
Since this guy clearly wasn't in on a life-without-possibility-of-parole sentence, how is it that there was no education whatsoever to keep convicts like him up to date on what's going on in society?
From: https://www.chicagotribune.com... [chicagotribune.com]
Nearly four decades ago, 19-year-old Renaldo Hudson talked his way into the South Side apartment of a retired carpenter under the guise of fixing a broken light fixture.
Instead, in a drug-fueled robbery plot, Hudson stabbed the elderly man dozens of times, then set his apartment ablaze to hide what he had done. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to die, a punishment later commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
As time passed, the violent, angry teenager grew into a model prisoner and mentor to other inmates. A grade school dropout unable to read or write when he entered prison, Hudson created a statewide essay contest that resulted in a book, started a prison newspaper and helped develop other rehabilitative programs. Three years ago, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Christian studies.
Well, it seems rehabilitating worked for him . . . even if he can't use a smartphone. The most important thing is if will not murder another person again.
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The most important thing is if will not murder another person again.
Well, hopefully they didn't sign him up for AT&T, then.
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Re:Just another way the DOC is broken (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the main points of a modern prison is that they are so awful that people are terrified of them.
People on this site use the term 'PMITA prisons' casually as rape-culture is normalized when it comes to felonies (yet Aaron Schwartz and Ed Snowden would be classified as such).
By negating the humanity of these people they can assuage their guilt over what would be war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
Pay the taxes to support it, grab a beer, and turn on Disney+ to forget about it.
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Shouldn't that be a part of the rehabilitation of convicts?
What makes you think the goal of the USA prison system is rehabilitation? It's punishment. Pure and simple. They strip you of your rights, they screw you for everything they can including things as simple as a phone call, they set you up for failure in getting a job, getting a loan, getting basically anything, and then eagerly await your return, a return very likely in the USA.
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The answer is: money.
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missing comma/verb (Score:3)
The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry (Score:2)
Brooks was here. [youtube.com]. Don't watch if you haven't seen Shawshank already, or get sad easily.
Why is this surprising? (Score:3)
(yes, we've all seen those videos)
Simply technology they're not used to.
Talk to any sub-25 year old - "Before there was google, we had to...", and they often look at you like you're an alien.
Hard to believe (Score:2)
Unless he has no family or friends who come visit him I have a hard time believing that he's been so isolated that a modern cell phone is an enigma to him. Plus, I doubt prisons are devoid of modern technology.
I really doubt much of this story... (Score:2)
...even in prison, he must have seen guards with smartphones and probably saw prisoners with smuggled in phones too. And most prisons have computers -don't believe he hadn't ever seen a browser or the internet.
If nothing else he would have seen smartphones on TV
Total BS
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You've never had an elderly relative who finds modern tech difficult? And they haven't even spent significant time in prison.
Seeing guards or prisoners with contraband (not something they normally like to show off) or a TV isn't the same as knowing the concepts strongly enough to use them.
I think you're being super hasty to call this BS based on your assumption you can be computer illiterate, see a comerical for an iPhone and then suddenly go and retain "Oh I understand all the terminology and how this work
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He was on death row. Dunno how it was done in his state, but in some states death row inmates live in semi-solitary confinement. They get a maxed out store call every week, plus extra stamps and writing materials. They aren't mixed with gen pop. That may only be in the run-up to an actual execution, though, so Hudson may have been allowed contact with other inmates.
auto flush toilets (Score:2)
Wait til this guy sees an auto-flush toilet with no handle.
Why are there no reintegration classes??? (Score:2)
Usability experiments (Score:5, Interesting)
Companies could hire him as a participant in usability evaluations - he is a "tabula rasa", therefore a good way to test how easy to use an interface is.
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As if companies nowadays care about how easy to use an interface is...
wow, so like there are downsides to crime? (Score:2)
Rather than trying to create some new program to assist such persons, or "reforming" the justice system so no criminal is so harshly punished, maybe we should all just say "golly, is sucks to do a crime that leads to decades in prison"
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. If you really desperately want to do whatever it is that's illegal, then work to convince the society to make it legal - but if, rather than being a responsible citizen and engaging in the debate, you decide to just break the law,
The OP Got One Important Fact Really Wrong (Score:2)
He murdered a 71 year old man for drug money (Score:4, Informative)
Cook County Stateâ(TM)s Attorney Richard A. Devine announced the charges made against a Chicago man who was responsible for the brutal death of a 71-year-old man in his own apartment. The victim was targeted for money to finance drug habits and was tricked by the son of the apartmentâ(TM)s maintenance man, which ultimately led to the cold-blooded killing of the alone man, and the robbery and arson committed along with the first-degree murder.
Renaldo Hudson, the son of the maintenance man of the apartment located at 7458 Kingston, Chicago, brutally tortured and killed the 71-year-old man who lived alone in his home unit. The defendant was found guilty of First-Degree Murder, Aggravated Arson, and Armed Robbery, and was subsequently sentenced to death on the grounds of committing the murder during the course of an Armed Robbery. The jury found no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of death sentences.
On June 6, 1983, the defendant tricked Folke Peterson â" a 71-year-old retired carpenter who lived alone in his home unit. The defendant posed as the man to fix the light issues the victim asked to be repaired in order to come into the old manâ(TM)s unit and proceed as planned. A few days prior to the succeeding events, the defendant mentioned to their neighbors of his acquired information on the victimâ(TM)s possessions and cash. At approximately 7:00 pm, the defendant, intoxicated and high from smoking cocaine laced joint, knocked on the door of the victim. For a few minutes, the defendant pretended to be fixing the lights until the victim turned his back, to which the defendant took as the chance to attack. The defendant put the victim in a headlock, took the knife the victim was holding and used it to slice the man up, plunging the knife into the victimâ(TM)s lower abdomen and to his neck. This incident led to eight-hour torture, where the defendant watched the victim struggle.
Following the defendantâ(TM)s first attack, he proceeded to take what he came for â" the old manâ(TM)s money and other possessions. The defendant demanded that the victim turned over his possessions while continuously stabbing the victim as he spoke. The old man begged for his life to be spared, to which the defendant responded by slashing his throat. After a few moments of contemplation, the defendant decided that attempted murder was just as bad as murder itself, and concluded that he would watch and wait for the 71-year-old victim to die. During the course of the defendant watching the victim succumb to death, he turned the television on.
A time-traveler (Score:3)
Spider Robinson wrote about this back in the mid 1970s. See the short story "The Time-Traveler". Then consider what most people take for granted that some cannot comprehend due to lack of exposure.
He was handed a Samsung smartphone (Score:2)
"The little things" (Score:2)
This was the plot of a 1930's or 40's Science Fiction story called "The Little Things", though it is a bit less extreme.
Unfortunately, Google search turns up mainly false leads. The one I'm remembering is probably the one by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore.
Man baffled (Score:2)
57-year-old man baffled by smartphones. Dog bites man. Not news.
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Factual Accuracy? (Score:2)
With no disrespect to the author, phones and smartphones are not uncommon in lockups. It would surprise me if he hadn't seen a smartphone inside. Yes, they are contraband. That is immaterial; they are ubiquitous in America's jails and prisons.
Not new (Score:2)
I remember a story about a man imprisoned in the 1910s who was baffled by electric starters on 1950s cars when he allegedly attempted to escape.
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Meanwhile it would cost me more than TWICE that for a landline, which at this point in time wouldn't even likely be POTS, it would be VOIP, and I can't take it with me anywhere.
So why the ever-loving fuck would I do that?
Re: havent had a cell phone in ten years you wimps (Score:2)
In 1997 when I got my first cell phone I bought it because nationwide calling plan meant I could call And talk with my sister for the cost of plan minutes and after 7pm free. I have never prrsonally owned a pots line or voip line. Why woild I? When my cell plans always covered such calls for far far less than long distance.
Growing up we had certain towns we couldn't call because the city 25 miles to the south was lock but the next town 5 miles away was long distance. Hell i hd friends on the other side
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Long distance services I see now were always a scam.
They weren't a scam, they were just deliberately priced to subsidize local service. The theory was that businesses needed long distance more than residential customers, so the long distance prices were set above cost and local prices were set below cost.
Back in the days before everyone had a landline phone it was considered important to have universal service, so using long distance pricing to subsidize local phone service was determined to be a good way to get phones into the homes of people who couldn't a
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Don't you want to use TikTok?
Nah. I've got one of those newfangled battery powered watches.
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banalism (Score:2)
Oh even if this were 40 years ago before smartphones the average person would still be doing something you find contemptible.
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Hell no. I don't even want people who use TikTok to use TikTok. I want them to get actual lives.
Oh noes! We stop having actual lives if we use the internet! Woe is we! ...does this apply every time I read something, write something, or talk to someone? I'm UNDEAD!!!1!
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Re: havent had a cell phone in ten years you wimps (Score:2)
Would you want this to be your only phone when you need to call the ambulance? So much to go wrong compared to a basic flip phone or a POTS line.
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I have had one particular bank not work with it. Can't remember which one, but the other banks I've used (probably around 10 different ones) all worked fine. And aside from banks, the only other issue with google voice not being accepted for texts was google itself, which will not accept google voice for some of its verification steps.
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You sound like you don't own a toilet either. And that's the one thing you really miss, isn't it?
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Somewhere up there I think I saw him mention a wife. She probably cares when he misses the toilet.
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You sound like a 13 year old.
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Typical 200k consultant, can't write for shit. I bet you swear at the poor sod that has to write up your presentations for you too.
I notice that despite your ranting about cellphones you do have internet access, so really you're no different to the rest of us.
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Are you really incapable of spotting the contradiction between "we don't hire slaves" and "I'm going to insist my employees don't have a phone in the workplace"?
Or indeed between patting yourself on the back for liberating yourself from things and technology and all that -- by posting with a computer on Slashdot?
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A mobile phone is tool, don't become a tool yourself.