You Can Now Mine Cryptocurrency to Bail People Out of Jail

[rgMekanic]

In an article from Vice, starting today, a new charity initiative called "Bail Bloc" allows users to download software to mine Monero cryptocurrency to provide bail money for people who can't afford it. The project will start by focusing on New York City jails, but in 2018 "funds will spread to more than three dozen cities in the next five years," the Bail Bloc site states. Bail Bloc estimates that if 5,000 people ran its software for a year, they could generate $151,000 USD worth of Monero and bail nearly 2,000 people out of jail. The app takes 10 percent of your CPU power by default, but generous users can set it so that they donate 25 or even 50 percent of their computing power.

I don't know how to feel about this. I like the idea of mining to be used to generate money for charities or the less fortunate, I just don't know if I would put people arrested and awaiting trial into those groups. And since bail is set usually based on the nature of the crime, and the accused's history, I fail to see how it can be "Xenophobic." It does makes sense that the story was picked up by Vice, as some of it's "moguls" may be in need of such a service in the future.

"Like all forms of surveillance, bail is designed to keep people deemed dangerous within reach," Maya Binyam, an editor at The New Inquiry and organizer for Bail Bloc, wrote in an email. "But the powers that assess an individual's likelihood to endanger the public are more often motivated by racism, classism, and xenophobia than they are by a desire to ensure safety."

 

[oROEchimaru]

I hear ya! However in some cities like Milwaukee:
a. Wealthy friends get a DUI or busted for pot: Pay a fine, go to court.
b. Poor friends get busted with pot or DUI > go to jail for days/weeks (often geared towards racial lines)

In many urban cities those that can afford do not serve time. So there is a movement in many areas to have equal penalties for crimes or for less poverty focused penalties (too poor to pay to play). This is a generalization but if you were of lower income and could not pay a parking ticket you may spend more time in jail than someone who had wealth but killed someone from a DUI (until the court date). So often bail is considered unfair/unjust.

Meanwhile GTA in wisconsin is free for all if under 18, you can basically shoot up heroin, steal a car > get released the next day and repeat until your 18 lol.

 

[GlowingGhoul]

I hear ya! However in some cities like Milwaukee:
a. Wealthy friends get a DUI or busted for pot: Pay a fine, go to court.
b. Poor friends get busted with pot or DUI > go to jail for days/weeks (often geared towards racial lines)

In many urban cities those that can afford do not serve time. So there is a movement in many areas to have equal penalties for crimes or for less poverty focused penalties (too poor to pay to play). This is a generalization but if you were of lower income and could not pay a parking ticket you may spend more time in jail than someone who had wealth but killed someone from a DUI (until the court date). So often bail is considered unfair/unjust.

Meanwhile GTA in wisconsin is free for all if under 18, you can basically shoot up heroin, steal a car > get released the next day and repeat until your 18 lol.

Bullshit. If you're going to agitate, then back up that inflammatory statement.

Let's see some examples of people rotting in jail for failing to pay a parking ticket. Go ahead, I'll wait, since it's so common I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all.

 

[Merc1138]

I hear ya! However in some cities like Milwaukee:
a. Wealthy friends get a DUI or busted for pot: Pay a fine, go to court.
b. Poor friends get busted with pot or DUI > go to jail for days/weeks (often geared towards racial lines)

In many urban cities those that can afford do not serve time. So there is a movement in many areas to have equal penalties for crimes or for less poverty focused penalties (too poor to pay to play). This is a generalization but if you were of lower income and could not pay a parking ticket you may spend more time in jail than someone who had wealth but killed someone from a DUI (until the court date). So often bail is considered unfair/unjust.

Meanwhile GTA in wisconsin is free for all if under 18, you can basically shoot up heroin, steal a car > get released the next day and repeat until your 18 lol.

Or people could just stop driving around while drunk.

 

[cageymaru]

Bullshit. If you're going to agitate, then back up that inflammatory statement.

Let's see some examples of people rotting in jail for failing to pay a parking ticket. Go ahead, I'll wait, since it's so common I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all.

Lawsuit Claims Authorities Let Man, Serving Time for Ticket, Die in Macomb Jail.
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/arti...me_for_ticket_die_in_macomb_jail#.VgQRNiBVikq

A federal lawsuit filed in March alleges that David Stojcevski, 32, of Roseville, who was serving time for failing to pay a traffic ticket, died in the Macomb County Jail last year after serving 17 days as result of neglect on the part of guards and medical staff, WDIV reports.
Stojcevski was charged with obstruction of justice as part of careless driving charge. When he failed to pay the $772 fine last year, the judge sentenced him to 30 days in jail.
Kevin Dietz of WDIV reports that the man lost 50 pounds in 17 days and was in a high-observation unit and the cell was under 24-hour surveillance. A videotape shows his body twitching, as he goes into drug withdrawal, lying on the floor naked, and nothing was done. Prisoners in that unit can't wear clothes for their own protection.


I just Google'd this really fast. Yes, your arse can and will go to jail for not paying a ticket.

 

[DarthBeavis]

Hell to the no on this one. Don't do the crime if you do not want to do the time.

 

[HeadRusch]

"Bail Bloc estimates that if 5,000 people ran its software for a year, they could generate $151,000 USD worth of Monero and bail nearly 2,000 people out of jail."

So like..the average bail keeping these poor bastards in the clink is $75 dollars per infraction?? And how is that going to be enough money for the devs to skim off the top to keep them in weed ??

 

[Nallexi]

Lawsuit Claims Authorities Let Man, Serving Time for Ticket, Die in Macomb Jail.
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/arti...me_for_ticket_die_in_macomb_jail#.VgQRNiBVikq

A federal lawsuit filed in March alleges that David Stojcevski, 32, of Roseville, who was serving time for failing to pay a traffic ticket, died in the Macomb County Jail last year after serving 17 days as result of neglect on the part of guards and medical staff, WDIV reports.
Stojcevski was charged with obstruction of justice as part of careless driving charge. When he failed to pay the $772 fine last year, the judge sentenced him to 30 days in jail.
Kevin Dietz of WDIV reports that the man lost 50 pounds in 17 days and was in a high-observation unit and the cell was under 24-hour surveillance. A videotape shows his body twitching, as he goes into drug withdrawal, lying on the floor naked, and nothing was done. Prisoners in that unit can't wear clothes for their own protection.


I just Google'd this really fast. Yes, your arse can and will go to jail for not paying a ticket.

Maybe things are a little different here, what comes under 'careless driving'?

 

[cageymaru]

Maybe things are a little different here, what comes under 'careless driving'?

What is careless driving?
https://law.freeadvice.com/general_practice/traffic_law/careless-driving.htm

Aggressive driving, speeding, illegal lane changes, excessive honking, conspicuously absent signal use, falling asleep at the wheel, and, of course, drivers holding cell phones.

Basically if you don't have the money to pay the fine, then you go to jail.

I don't think that this mining coin for people locked up is a good idea as there is going to be that one asshole with the huge heart that bails out the "minor" offense domestic violence perpetrator and then they go back and kill their wife. Now if a law firm made a list of minor offense people then..... Maybe.... Might think about it... Not likely.

It is a good idea for helping people that have been accused of crimes that they didn't commit. Now I would jump all over it for that. Personally I'd rather spend my idle computer time curing cancer than this though. I realize that most people do nothing or have various charities that they connect to emotionally. I'm not into this one, but I wouldn't begrudge someone that wanted to help!

 

[bos]

I'm all for this for nonviolent offenders. When enforcement of the law is horrendously uneven especially towards minority and low income communities and the judicial system also extremely uneven in it's dispensing of "justice" we need more of this work. Most americans don't have a $1000 to their name, any amount of bail can mean the difference between months or years in jail without being convicted of a crime, without trail, and simply because you can't buy your freedom.

 

[Chunder]

Let's see some examples of people rotting in jail for failing to pay a parking ticket. Go ahead, I'll wait, since it's so common I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all.

Your ignorance is amazing. In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. A quick 2 seconds of Google will educate you on this very important, and multi-billion bail industry that prays on the poor for not being able to pay minor fines, and then comes at them again when they can't pay the predatory bail terms that's illegal in most modern nations. The following is just on the first page of Google....



https://www.npr.org/sections/codesw...rt-fines-and-fees-can-create-cycle-of-poverty

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/09/pf/arrest-warrant-jail/index.html

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/loca...cle_8b8d2229-c7ad-5e7f-aea2-baeb13390880.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/without-funds-pay-fines-minor-incidents-can-mean-jail

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-new-bill-collector-tactic-jail-time.html

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/16/pf/college/arrested-student-loan-marshals/index.html

https://thinkprogress.org/the-retur...iled-for-not-paying-their-bills-761f1da65b82/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/debtors-prisons-report_n_4768320.html

 

[malachy]

Bullshit. If you're going to agitate, then back up that inflammatory statement.

Let's see some examples of people rotting in jail for failing to pay a parking ticket. Go ahead, I'll wait, since it's so common I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all.

He said "[t]his is a generalization," but here you go, champ:

"In Ferguson, Mo., one woman was arrested and jailed multiple times over two parking tickets from a single violation in 2007. More than seven years later, she had paid $550 in fines and fees and still owed the city $541, even though her original fine was just $151 plus fees. Her case isn’t particularly unusual for Ferguson: A Justice Department report on the city’s municipal court system revealed 'overwhelming evidence' that indigent defendants were serving jail time on fine-only charges, often traffic offenses."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...send-people-to-jail-for-failure-to-pay-fines/

"Easton woman sent to jail over $27,000 in parking tickets, court costs"

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/07/easton_woman_sent_to_jail_over.html

If I expand my search to "traffic fine" and "traffic ticket," rather than just "parking fine" and "parking ticket," I get these:

http://www.newser.com/story/235077/woman-says-she-was-jailed-for-weeks-just-for-being-poor.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-city-agrees-pay-dozens-jailed-debtors-prison-n734946

https://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2016/03/25/debtors-prisons-traffic-ticket-put-jail/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltag...ime-to-be-poor?utm_term=.wjJX2zxjg#.qqZDyaYJv

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-of-americas-debtor-prisons/

https://www.alternet.org/miss-traffic-ticket-go-jail-return-debtor-prison-hard-times-usa




And for extra spice, how about a man who died, while jailed because he did not pay his careless driving ticket:

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/arti...an_serving_time_for_ticket_die_in_macomb_jail


So in future, try not to act like an a-hole to other commentators. Or at all.

Edit to add: I see that cagey got that last one while I was drafting my post, but I'll leave it in because for f--ks sake, people shouldn't die for trivial shit like that.

 

[pgaster]

Fuck no.


-----------


After Beating Off-Duty Cop Into Unconsciousness, Parolee Gets Time Served Plus 8 Days

Tremaine Wilson, 30, blindsided the officer, knocking him out, according to witnesses and a police report. Wilson fled the scene and was arrested nearby. He was charged with six counts of aggravated battery to a police officer and two counts of aggravated battery in a public place.

At the time, Wilson was on parole after serving half of an eight-year sentence for carjacking. Last October, his parole was revoked and he returned to prison to await the outcome of the Wrigleyville case.

http://www.cwbchicago.com/2017/11/after-beating-off-duty-cop-into.html?m=1

----------


Sunday, November 5, 2017 —A 23-year-old man has been charged with a felony after Cook County Sheriff’s Police officers found him with a stolen pistol in unincorporated Melrose Park, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.

During a bond court appearance on Saturday, Withers received an I-bond and was released on his own recognizance.

http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/press_page/press_ UUWHillside_11_05_2017.html

----------

Lots of these fuckers get off way too easy as it is.

Of course some seem to have fun and enjoy their time in jail:


Female sheriff’s officers sue Dart over masturbating jail inmates

Three female corrections officers at the Cook County Jail have filed a lawsuit claiming that Sheriff Tom Dart has not done enough to protect them from inmates who threaten and grope female guards and “brazenly masturbate” in front of them.

A lawyer for veteran corrections officers Sdahrie Howard, Denise Hobbs and Ellenor Altman said the trio and their fellow female officers who work in the jail complex have had to deal almost daily with incidents in which inmates threaten and harass them.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicag...cers-sue-dart-over-masturbating-jail-inmates/

---------------

Public defenders pushed to breaking point by masturbating inmates

Masturbating inmates have become a common sight on the walk to and from holding cells where defense attorneys meet clients, and at the jail and in courthouse lockups. Last week, in a letter to Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Public Defender Amy Campanelli said her staff has reached a breaking point.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/cook-county-inmates-masturbating-public-defenders/

 

[Nallexi]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/07/easton_woman_sent_to_jail_over.html

Lockhart, 46, of 1445 Lehigh St. has been racking up Easton parking and vehicle violations since 2007, including illegal parking, driving an unregistered vehicle, failing to have a current inspection, storage of a vehicle on a street and failing to pay the meter.

For each violation that Lockhart failed to pay within 30 days, the citation was turned over to the district judge's office. If a notice was mailed and Lockhart still failed to make a payment, a warrant was issued for her arrest. Lockhart's file include hundreds of violations and dozens of warrants.

...I'm okay with this. Some people just don't get it.

 

[Domingow]

Where is the ICO on this one? and how do I throw monies at it?
I actually see this as not so much a scam coin, but as something that perhaps may have some foothold 10-20yrs down the road.
I see something like this being incorporated with the EFF in the not too distant future.

 

[Kdawg]

most people in jail deserve it

 

[SvenBent]

most people in jail deserve it

Its kinda sad if its only "most" and not all...

 

[Mike89]

Oh great, a crypto get out of jail free card. I've got a better idea. Just don't do stupid shit to get thrown in jail and you won't need to get bailed out. Works for me.

 

[Krazy925]

I’d help out as long as it’s for hookers and blow related offenses.

 

[Kdawg]

Its kinda sad if its only "most" and not all...

yeah, like the dude above me, release the hookers. Other countries have legal prostitutes, but murica is too good for that shit.

and some guys are really innocent. you know those dudes who are wrongly convicted and half decade later acquitted.

hence "most"

 

[cageymaru]

yeah, like the dude above me, release the hookers. Other countries have legal prostitutes, but murica is too good for that shit.

and some guys are really innocent. you know those dudes who are wrongly convicted and half decade later acquitted.

hence "most"

I wish 1/2 a decade.

Prisoner who spent 46 years in jail for rape he didn't commit released as conviction overturned.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...rned-nurse-kidnapping-louisiana-a8055546.html

Jones’ attorneys also said that a prosecutor who secured his conviction had a track record of withholding evidence favourable to defendants. A 1974 opinion by a state Supreme Court justice said the prosecutor was responsible for 11 reversed convictions over the preceding year — “an incredible statistic for a single prosecutor,” the justices noted.

Jones’ attorney Emily Maw choked up while talking about the case, which the Innocence Project started working on about 15 years ago.

“It takes a long time sometimes for courts to recognize a wrong,” she said.


What I wish is that when prosecutors or others find out that they are wrong, they will right the wrong without pressure to have a conviction. The real rapist in this case was caught multiple times raping women and the prosecutor knew that he had the wrong man in jail. But he just ignored the evidence and let him stay in jail for 46 years. If you Google you will find plenty of cases like this.

I think that doing a cryptocurrency type donation to the EFF or Innocence Project is a noble cause. I wouldn't do one to some prisoner that says he is innocent though.

 

[tetris42]

Hell to the no on this one. Don't do the crime if you do not want to do the time.

And don't look like the guy who did the crime and don't be near a cop if he's having a bad day too.

 

[Patton187]

He said "[t]his is a generalization," but here you go, champ:





If I expand my search to "traffic fine" and "traffic ticket," rather than just "parking fine" and "parking ticket," I get these:

http://www.newser.com/story/235077/woman-says-she-was-jailed-for-weeks-just-for-being-poor.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-city-agrees-pay-dozens-jailed-debtors-prison-n734946

https://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2016/03/25/debtors-prisons-traffic-ticket-put-jail/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltag...ime-to-be-poor?utm_term=.wjJX2zxjg#.qqZDyaYJv

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-of-americas-debtor-prisons/

https://www.alternet.org/miss-traffic-ticket-go-jail-return-debtor-prison-hard-times-usa




And for extra spice, how about a man who died, while jailed because he did not pay his careless driving ticket:

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/arti...an_serving_time_for_ticket_die_in_macomb_jail


So in future, try not to act like an a-hole to other commentators. Or at all.

Edit to add: I see that cagey got that last one while I was drafting my post, but I'll leave it in because for f--ks sake, people shouldn't die for trivial shit like that.

If someone has 27k in tickets, they need to be in jail.

 

[HeadRusch]

Summary: There are bad cops, and there are bad criminals. There are good cops, and people who make mistakes and don't make them again.

On the internet it's easy to build a straw-man and then play the "TASTES GREAT / LESS FILLING" Coke v. Pepsi game.....and look where it's gotten us. We've had our infant period on the internet, it's time we stopped being so easily baited and recruited into bullshit movements that try to manipulate facts to suit a narrative.

 

[cageymaru]

Its kinda sad if its only "most" and not all...

Petition claims DNA proves VB man did not rape girl. This is a case that just popped up on my local news station as I live near the VA / NC border. It will be interesting to see how many more years he will sit behind bars before the court decides to ever take another look at the evidence. Courts do not have to look at your case again after a conviction.
http://wavy.com/2017/11/15/petition-claims-dna-proves-vb-man-did-not-rape-girl/

Darnell Phillips was sentenced to 100 years in prison for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in Virginia Beach.
The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law took on his case and recently filed a petition for writ of actual innocence on his behalf. It states the DNA testing completed in August did not match Phillips’. The Innocence Project says the only evidence against Phillips is a hair found at the crime scene that was believed to be Phillips’, although DNA testing completed in 2001 proved the hair did not belong to him.

When you have cases like this where people may have been tossed into jail for crimes that they most likely didn't commit, then there needs to be some type of fallback where they can get legal help to be exonerated of the crime. Financing it with cryptocurrency seems like a good idea.

 

[Cmdrmonkey]

most people in jail deserve it

Jail is not the same thing as prison. People in jail haven't been convicted of anything yet. I'm guessing a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the two.

 

[SvenBent]

Petition claims DNA proves VB man did not rape girl. This is a case that just popped up on my local news station as I live near the VA / NC border. It will be interesting to see how many more years he will sit behind bars before the court decides to ever take another look at the evidence. Courts do not have to look at your case again after a conviction.
http://wavy.com/2017/11/15/petition-claims-dna-proves-vb-man-did-not-rape-girl/

Darnell Phillips was sentenced to 100 years in prison for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in Virginia Beach.
The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law took on his case and recently filed a petition for writ of actual innocence on his behalf. It states the DNA testing completed in August did not match Phillips’. The Innocence Project says the only evidence against Phillips is a hair found at the crime scene that was believed to be Phillips’, although DNA testing completed in 2001 proved the hair did not belong to him.

When you have cases like this where people may have been tossed into jail for crimes that they most likely didn't commit, then there needs to be some type of fallback where they can get legal help to be exonerated of the crime. Financing it with cryptocurrency seems like a good idea.

Very sad case and proves how horribly broken the justice system is

Jail is not the same thing as prison. People in jail haven't been convicted of anything yet. I'm guessing a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the two.

I was unaware of this distinction. Do you have anything more on this?

 

[Krazy925]

Jail is not the same thing as prison. People in jail haven't been convicted of anything yet. I'm guessing a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the two.

That’s not true. You can spend more than a year in jail if convicted of a crime. It depends on your crime and the judge/jury/prosecutor.

Plenty of people in jail have been convicted.

 

[jbc029]

Jail is not the same thing as prison. People in jail haven't been convicted of anything yet. I'm guessing a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the two.

^ This.

Prison is for after the conviction. Jailing non-violent offenders doesn't seem to have much of an upside, but once they're in an actual prison, they most likely belong there.

I can see both sides of this. Extended jail time actively inhibits the average person's ability gather the means to defend themselves *or* pay the penalty if it's assessed as a fine.

On the other hand, if the offender has the fact on their side of "I can't afford it" (and it's really true), some sort of penalty needs to be enforced. Being poor does not excuse someone from compliance with a law. You can't garnish what is, functionally, nothing.

 

[cageymaru]

Jail is not the same thing as prison. People in jail haven't been convicted of anything yet. I'm guessing a lot of people don't know there's a difference between the two.

The overcrowding in the NC prison system meant that the guy who raped, murdered and beheaded my niece sat in our local jail for a couple of years after being convicted. My cousin worked there and had to look at the ugly SOB everyday.

Also you can sit in jail without ever going to trial for decades. Just Google it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sat...ome..69i57.10664j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[jbc029]

That’s not true. You can spend more than a year in jail if convicted of a crime. It depends on your crime and the judge/jury/prosecutor.

Plenty of people in jail have been convicted.

States have the option to have local jails hold convicts, usually due to overcrowding at the state penitentiary. That doesn't mean that the jail is functioning in the same capacity as a prison in normal use cases. It's a supposed to be a viable, temporary, supplement. The majority of a jail's inmate population are usually not people who have been found guilty of the crime the jail is holding them for, though.

 

[Krazy925]

States have the option to have local jails hold convicts, usually due to overcrowding at the state penitentiary. That doesn't mean that the jail is functioning in the same capacity as a prison in normal use cases. It's a supposed to be a viable, temporary, supplement. The majority of a jail's inmate population are usually not people who have been found guilty of the crime the jail is holding them for, though.

1. People who have been arrested and are being held pending a plea agreement, trial, or sentencing;
2. People who have been convicted of a misdemeanor criminal offense and are serving a sentence of (typically) less than 1 year; and
3. People who have been sentenced to prison and are about to be transferred to another facility.

#2 is what I would be referring too. Also we have a prisoner sitting in Alameda county jail right now that has been convicted and is serving a 2.5 year sentence. Not because of over crowding but because the judge sentenced him to that length of time in our county jail. He also is a felon from the case, so #2 isn't exactly 100% correct.

 

[katanaD]

"Bail Bloc estimates that if 5,000 people ran its software for a year, they could generate $151,000 USD worth of Monero and bail nearly 2,000 people out of jail."

So like..the average bail keeping these poor bastards in the clink is $75 dollars per infraction?? And how is that going to be enough money for the devs to skim off the top to keep them in weed ??

what i dont get is.. ok they cant afford the bail.. but they can afford the computer powerfull enough to mine???

 

[Krazy925]

what i dont get is.. ok they cant afford the bail.. but they can afford the computer powerfull enough to mine???

You mine as part of a team and they use the proceeds to free people on bail.

It's not the criminals computer (necessarily).

 

[Kdawg]

I wish 1/2 a decade.

brainfart. I meant half century. not half decade.