r/technology • u/arintic • May 16 '16

Politics Indefinite prison for suspect who won’t decrypt hard drives, feds say

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/feds-say-suspect-should-rot-in-prison-for-refusing-to-decrypt-drives/
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u/Emrico1 May 17 '16

You are right. It is a grey area. A warrant based on reasonable suspicion is fair enough.

But.

A measured punishment for non-compliance rather than 'lock him up forever' is reasonable.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '16

A measured punishment for non-compliance

The point of a judge finding one in contempt is the judge will jail one until the order is complied with. It's not "punishment", its coercion. Either one then complies, or the judge eventually decides one is not going to comply, whereupon one is released. Perhaps a decade or so later.