h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the last few weeks we've been burgled at work twice.

The first time they took the MacBooks, the Mac Minis and the iPads, along with the HD film camera. All easily portable stuff.

The second time they took the iMacs.

The doors were strengthened a bit after the first time, but they're internal doors and were easily kicked in. Fortunately we'd set the Mac facing the door to record and send off photos of any movement outside of office hours, and we got some very clear photos of the burglar. Unsurprisingly the Police know him and are trying to find him to arrest him. Seems he's not living where he claimed he'd be, and the longer it takes to find him the less chance there is of us getting any of our stuff back.

But it's the disruption that's the most annoying thing. Yesterday we were all working in the conference room while the police and then forensics were there. We were able to go back into our main office today, but most of the doors are boarded over and we have to walk through several offices just to go to the loo.

So, I'm a bit out of sorts with my routine disturbed.

Isn't the idea of Macbooks that you take them with you rather than leave them at the office?

Wouldn't know, I use a PC. Although they did also nick a PC laptop.

Was any important data lost?

Some was lost. All the developers are using Git and are in the habbit of committing through to staging on Fridays, and always to dev server each night.

The dev server is in the office, but is a bulky old Dell and was left. The NAS was left, simply because we don't think they knew what it was, so any work backed up there was fine (plus that backs up off site each night). However the designers are still getting used to the idea of backing up, and we lost quite a but of original artwork.

Unlucky. There's some scrubbers out there.

I hope the police get him and he gets what he deserves, not a slap on the wrist and off-you-go

The suspect has recently been released after 18 months of a 3 year sentence for burglary due to good behaviour.

criminal justice system at work

So, should go right back in for three more years without early release

I have to admit that I don't agree with this early release / parole thing. I think it makes a mockery of the sentence. It's a bit like saying, "The judge and jury must have been wrong, because you've not broken the law while in prison."

I suspect it might be a way of saving money for the prison. But it definitely doesn't save the society as a whole.

Or, it's there to stop prisoners being violent and abusive in prison, along with showing them that not being a dick does have some benefits?

"Hey, scumbag. If you practise not being a dick on the inside, we'll let you go early, on the condition that you continue to not be a dick outside. Learn good behaviour, and you will be rewarded."

Given that three quarters of prisoners don't re-offend, it sort of works.

The lowest rates of recidivism are in places like Norway where they treat convicts like humans and work toward rehabilitation.

Here in the States we shoot burglars. That hasn't seemed to stop them though.

When we don't shoot them, we put them in for-profit prisons. That doesn't seem to work very well either.

They get out of prison, yes, but they don't get out of being watched. They still have to report in to Probation, and if they break their conditions of release they are straight back in. It's designed to help transition them back in to real life but with a slapping hand ready if they flaunt their terms.

I worry more about the people who fail to get early release (for showing no interest in changing their behaviour) who are then released with little or no control because they've done their time.