
What It’s Like to Get Online After 25 Years in Prison - astaire
http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-after-25-years-prison/
======
raldi
Why did you post a link to a site which stole the content, stripped the
author's name, mangled the text by repeating some of it twice, and omitted an
extremely interesting video?

Moderators, please update the link so it points to the original source:

[http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-...](http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-25-years-prison/)

~~~
jschuur
Presumably the duplication of the pull quotes and lack of the video comes from
copy & pasting from the original web page (for whatever reason).

If you're curious (and not that it matters for his story), the author, Michael
G. Santos, initially received a 45 year sentence for 'a scheme to distribute
cocaine':

<http://www.quora.com/Michael-Santos-4> <http://about.me/michael.santos>

------
jacquesm
Presumably the reason why inmates don't have unfettered access to the internet
is to make sure they're not running some empire from behind bars but at the
same time in this day and age this sounds like exceptionally cruel punishment.

If there is one thing that would help an ex-convict to re-integrate into
society it would be to be able to read about what is going on in the outside
world and to be able to self-educate so they can hit the ground running. After
all if you leave jail without marketable skills chances of falling back into
crime are higher which eventually serves nobody, least of all society.

~~~
carlyle4545
My first startup actually landed me in CA state prison. (Read about my prison
sentence and my new project here: <http://comebackasap.com/burn_the_boats/> )

Though I "only" served a year, the one thing I missed more than anything
--including family, friends, and the touch of a woman-- was internet access.
(I love my family, friends, and lady friends but a year away from them wasn't
so bad. Fortunately I have no kids.)

I'd literally have dreams about the internet. One dream I remember in
particular was winning an imaginary "Inmate of the Month" contest. My prize
was an hour of unfettered access to the internet. It was absolute bliss
checking my email, Google Voice, Hacker News, etc.) I remember that dream with
vivid clarity to this day. It may seem innocuous, but to me it illustrates how
we've become so accustomed to an information-driven existence.

While in prison I'd seen numerous sports trivia arguments that resulted in
all-out brawls that could've easily been resolved with a 5 second Google
search. (Dudes were getting sent to the SHU for as many as 6 months because of
a fight that stemmed from an argument over which team Kobe Bryant scored 81
points against. Insane.)

So you may ask, "Why not ask the C.O.'s to look it up on their phones?" It's
true, some CO's would do it for us. Others would tell us flat-out "no". But
then you have to worry about the d __k CO's that would pretend to look it up,
then give us faulty information just to stoke the flames of discord amongst us
inmates. (I've seen this happen multiple times.)

As you can imagine, there is a lot of storytelling (read: lying) that goes on
in prison. Imagine not being able to call a guy out on his nonsense with a
couple swipes of the screen. "Oh you're in prison for moving 100 kilos of
cocaine? Says here you were convicted for felony DUI." An extreme example but
you get the point. In the free world, people simply can't get away with BS
when each of us is walking around with miniature super-computers in our
pockets.

"Cruel punishment" indeed.

~~~
mahyarm
So from what I understand from your story, if you hired the proper lawyers and
put in the proper legal structure to properly protect yourself in the first
place, you wouldn't of been sent to prison?

Jesus

~~~
carlyle4545
You're partially correct.

Yes, our corporate attorney was useless. We had been under investigation for a
year prior to formal charges being filed. He made a variety of changes to our
contracts in an effort to make the company compliant with CA law, (mostly
indemnifying us against any loss that may come as a result of a person placing
their vehicles in our program.) He failed. I was sentenced to state prison.

Our "proper legal structure" mattered little in lieu of the circumstances that
led to the company's (and my freedom's) demise.

------
TomAnthony
Author is Michael Santos:

Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_G._Santos> Website:
<http://michaelsantos.com/> Twitter: <https://twitter.com/michaelgsantos>
More: <http://about.me/michael.santos>

He did a degree, began a doctorate and wrote 7 books whilst in prison, and
seems he hit the ground running when he got out. Good for him.

------
friendly_chap
I have utmost respect for this guy, after spending 25 years in prison he still
has such a positive outlook, thinking about how he can utilize the internet to
his advantage.

It teaches us something about not giving up our future even if the present is
less than stellar. Startups are hard, but imagine if you would have to wait 25
years to realize your ideas...

As cliché as it is, never give up!

~~~
jacquesm
25 years is an enormous amount of time. Think of the cost to society to lock
up people for the bigger part of their productive life.

~~~
davidw
As a purely hypothetical argument, there's a net benefit to society if
someone's productive efforts go into stealing from or otherwise harming other
people. How many people fall into that category versus how many can be
reformed or otherwise kept from causing harm is something I don't have facts
about and is probably another debate for another site.

~~~
obviouslygreen
Whether there is a "net benefit" depends on how much time they're in prison
for, how much harm they caused before going in, and what kind of good they
do/value they contribute once they're out. Even after the time it would take
to establish an effective metric, that's something that would vary very widely
by individual.

------
adaml_623
Interesting but is it only me who can't find the author's name or a link to
his blog?

~~~
adaml_623
Probably this is a more appropriate article as it hasn't just stolen someone's
content.

[http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-...](http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-25-years-prison/)

His name is Michael Santos and he did 25 years for running drugs.

~~~
mattsfrey
That's tragic, I assumed to get 25 years he must have killed somebody

~~~
lostlogin
There are those out there that would likely say he killed many. The war on
drugs etc. I personally wonder what he would have achieved if unconstrained,
if he can do as much as he has while in prison.

~~~
DigitalJack
It's all speculation, but my guess is he wouldn't have achieved much and would
probably be dead.

~~~
jacquesm
What difference would 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years make?

In other words do you think that he will achieve something today that he would
not have been able to achieve 5 years ago?

~~~
DigitalJack
I was thinking more along the lines of, "if he hadn't gone to prison, what
would he have achieved."

I haven't read much about him, but if he was a dealer and trafficker in
cocaine, I think there is a high probability that he would either be dead or
not have accomplished much.

------
jbrooksuk
I've read about this guy before and what continues to puzzle me is how well
versed his Internet terminology is. Things like "amazed me to see how the
search engine indexed so much" just doesn't make sense, this guy was already
aware of what indexing is and yet never used a computer inside prison?

It also seems that he built up an entire online presence before he'd stepped
out of prison, the way it reads.

~~~
dasil003
I imagine he did it the way we all did in the 70s and 80s: by digesting every
shred of information from available print publications.

~~~
jbrooksuk
I guess there is that, it explains how he knew about Facebook, Twitter &
LinkedIn and also what an Apple iPhone + Safari is.

~~~
D9u
There are televisions in prison, and the net is all over broadcast TV
programming.

------
D9u
Arguably, the internet _did_ exist in 1987, although not the same as the net
we know today.

[http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/ori...](http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/origins.html)

Kudos to Mr Santos for his efforts at turning a new leaf in life, and I've
also noticed that attention spans have decreased over the past few decades.

------
marquis
Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kE6JIjZ...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kE6JIjZLWUAJ:www.olwiki.com/archives/619.html+http://www.olwiki.com/archives/619.html&hl=en&strip=1)

------
cheez
> On the day (of my release) that my wife, Carole

Wow

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jrochkind1
Why is the author's name not attached to the article? Anyone know who wrote
this?

~~~
josephb
Original article here:

[http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-...](http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/santos-getting-online-
after-25-years-prison/)

------
coldtea
telnet eee.fwed.dww 25

mail from: your_worst_nightmare@hell.com

rcpt to: claris@isp.com

I'm coming for you bitch. You know who.

.

~~~
coldtea
If you're keeping score, I got from +3 to -4 (current) for this one.

It's supposed to be a telnet SMTP session, using a fake email, and to mimic
the standard cliche plot of Hollywood movies, with the convict returning to
seek his revenge.

Not meant as misogynistic or anything (the "bitch" is written "in character").

------
richardlblair
Because you were locked up for so long I'll go easy on you.

Use a font size bigger than 13px... seriously. You're lucky I wanted to know
what you had to say. Normally I'd just close the tab and never look back.

~~~
treerock
He says on hackerNews with it's 9pt text and 8pt headings.

~~~
richardlblair
You clearly missed the fact that i said px, and not pt.

I also find it hilarious that I get down voted on this of all things. Too
funny.

