IP: Wired News: Prisoners Await Y2K Day

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:44:33 -0700
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
From: Spencer Ante <seante@earthlink.net>


Dave,

This is an investigative feature I worked on for a few weeks. Think your
readers might be interested in it.

-- Spencer

For full story go to:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15627.html


                          Prisoners Await Y2K Day by Spencer Ante (seante@earthlink.net)

10:30 a.m.  15.Oct.98.PDT Among the more outlandish scenarios envisioned by Year 2000 doomsayers is that the millennium bug will crash prison security systems and open the razor-wire gates, setting loose untold numbers of violent and dangerous offenders.

"People joke about doors flying open but it's a very distinct possibility," said Dr. Michael Harden, an information technology manager for 20 years and author of a study that examined the impact of Y2K on embedded computer systems.

"If a prison is defined by its ability to control inmates and all these systems break down, a prison ceases to become a prison and it becomes a hotel." . . .


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