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Comment by hammyhavoc | Hacker News Reader

To me, it comes across as a "I can still affect you even from in here", but I am extremely cynical when it comes to murderers.

The amount of press coverage that letter and granting his wishes got is completely unhealthy and still paints him as somewhat of a microcelebrity rather than a convicted murderer serving his sentence.

If family members want to interact with him, that's their own prerogative. Complete strangers? Utterly bizarre and completely inappropriate, IMO, especially to then carry out his instructions.

What in the fuck are people thinking?

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Him being a convicted murderer doesn't make him any less of a human with basic dignity. He still had the achievements we used for years. Prison is not supposed to be a memory hole we throw people in forever. I'm happy to respect people who messed up lives, if they genuinely want to recover.

Nobody questioned the basic human dignity of Reiser, and nobody claimed that we should memory hole prisoners forever.

What was questioned was the good judgment of Brennan and the list moderators for posting Reiser's manifesto to LKML.

If getting your manifesto posted to LKML was a part of the basic standards of human dignity, California Health Care Facility would allow Reiser to post there himself. (And arguably LKML would not need moderators either - after all, declining a submission would violate basic human dignity.)

> it comes across as a "I can still affect you even from in here"

Sure sounds like degrading Reiser below what would be afforded to a random person who has restricted means of communication. I hope he can affect other people "even from in here". Humans are social and communicate.

> California Health Care Facility would allow Reiser to post there himself

While I don't know much about that specific facility, there's lots of issues with prisoner treatment already. Are you saying they're at a really high standard and should be the benchmark in this case? (Or that the US prison system reaches that level in general?)

I am not saying that human rights abuses don't happen in California prisons (inmate working conditions are a big problem, as is the state of solitary confinement).

But on the specific subject of public internet access, I'm almost certain that CHCF operates in full accordance with the relevant laws and ECtHR opinions -- which, by the way, explicitly state that access to the public internet is a matter in which prisons can and should exercise the strictest controls.

Wait, the thread is not about actual computer access. Of course public internet access will be regulated. I was originally replying about passing the message for him. Those are completely different things.

At least for me, I'm thinking it's funny the way US people see prison vs "europeans". Punishing vs rehabilitation

That is a generalization. As someone in the US, my view is that prison _should_, in most cases have a goal of rehabilitation, but in practice, at least in the US is more often used only as punishment.

And I'm sure there are europeans who think that prison should only be for punishment.

I'm European and I had the same reaction

These were pretty much my exact thoughts while reading the story.

Brennan posting a novel-length letter to the LKML, one penned by a convicted murderer, was some questionable decisionmaking to say the least.

I sure am glad I'm not one of the (over a dozen) people mentioned in that email by name. I imagine that's profoundly disturbing. And that's before this butcher's micro-celebrity status propels his letter to the top spot when people Google your name. And I can only hope the victim's family is blissfully unaware of the exposure this."killing my wife and other social mistakes I made" tripe got.

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