[SwanRonson]

Community service usually isn’t that bad, people volunteer to do it all of the time. Just from what I read in the story, it seemed Edwin was more inclined to want to stay inside than interact with others in person. I also assume the exchange rate between community service and jail time is reasonable. I think in his eyes the extra time was a painless and quicker way to pay his debt.

[throwawaygh]

I almost wonder if it would've been more humane to force him to do the community service.

Edwin was definitely clinically depressed even before his run-in with the law. When I go through bouts of depression, I also get introverted and have trouble forcing myself to interact with folks IRL. Volunteering at schools and in nature (trail work) forces social interaction and physical exercise, both of which help me break out of the depressive state. I sort of impose community service on myself when I feel my mental state slipping.

Everyone is different, of course, but forcing Edwin to do something physical and social outdoors for a few months might well have saved his life.

[Fnoord]

He was offered a choice. Forcing someone to do community service, ugh. Its tough work, IMO, because you do what other people don't want to do, and you need to act socially or physical labor (I'm bad at both, and I'm clumsy). It is never intellectually challenging. People like him would've fared better with a community labor which is intellectually challenging, or just some administrative job at e.g. the tax dept. Which is boring, but at least not very socially demanding.

This guy lacked two things: love, understanding, and genuine interest from his parents, and two: a 'guide towards the light side of technology'. I did not have the latter (though I did have a moral compass), but I am blessed I got the former, I believe it helped with the moral compass. If he was born 20 years earlier, I am pretty sure he wouldn't have been caught with petty DDoS crimes. But his troubled relationship with his parents? It would've remained.

[throwawaygh]

> Its tough work, IMO, because you do what other people don't want to do

Sometimes, I am sure, but I this is not always true. I've run volunteer clean-up events and as the organizer I signed off on court-mandated community service. Most people helping out were volunteering their time for free. And then there were a few folks who had court-mandated community service.

It is tough and boring and thankless work, but plenty of people volunteer to their own time and money to do that work. Is it pleasant? No. Is it heinously inhumane? Jesus christ, no.

> It is never intellectually challenging.

Oof. It's court-mandated work, not a board game night.

> love, understanding, and genuine interest from his parents

If you read the article, there are tons of hints that his (adoptive) parents really did care and even put in a lot of effort to shape his social milieu to make it less "socially demanding". If anything, his parents' primary mistake was being too lenient when confronted with serious red flags. He switched schools and was later dismissed from a rehabilitation center as a lost cause, for christ's sake. This wasn't "normal troubled kid" stuff.

> I am pretty sure he wouldn't have been caught with petty DDoS crimes.

In the article it sounds like those crimes were ignored until he committed much more serious crimes. And he wasn't even punished for them, it's just that the bread crumbs were used to identify him.

[thaumasiotes]

> Forcing someone to do community service, ugh. Its tough work, IMO, because you do what other people don't want to do, and you need to act socially or physical labor (I'm bad at both, and I'm clumsy). It is never intellectually challenging. People like him would've fared better with a community labor which is intellectually challenging, or just some administrative job at e.g. the tax dept. Which is boring, but at least not very socially demanding.

To get useful labor from a slave, you need to either give them an incentive to do good work, or you need to be able to tell the difference between good work and bad work. A job at the tax department fails that second criterion, and the fact that the labor is conceived of as a punishment rather than a job we want somebody to do prevents an incentive from being offered.