I've had the opportunity of participating on the design phase of an application to control the distribution of ostomy bags for a network of public hospitals. I was a bit shocked when I knew that the decision-makers were about to cut functionality intended to provide workarounds in case of system failures, so that employees could keep delivering bags upon request.

That would basically result on patients not getting their ostomy bags on time, and I can't even imagine what would follow afterwards. What would be the reactions of patients and their relatives, what levels of stress would hospitals' employees would be subjected to, and so on.

I left the company some months after that, and I don't know what was the final decision, but they'd been warned.

Maybe one day some set of ethical standards will be considered non-functional requirements as important as robustness, security and others.

With technicians being responsible for warning their managers, managers being responsible for assessing risks and documenting their decisions, everything being made transparently and everybody being accountable.

Yeah, I'd assume this would be resolved real quick if the state (or the contractor responsible for the software) had to pay out, say, $100 per inmate per day that they improperly spent in jail past the end of their sentence.

That this problem is allowed to persist seems like an indication that the people in charge believe that prisoners have a low probability of successfully suing the state for damages.

Don’t they have liability? Unlawful imprisonment is a crime. I am amazed that the people can’t sue about this.

You'd think so, but then again it's not too surprising to find that not everyone enjoys the same rights in actuality that we all theoretically have. And rights can vanish if they aren't actively asserted and the people affected don't know about them. The article mentions that the people who have had the problem addressed were the people that complained, or who had family on the outside who knew what was going on.

If Arizona isn't acting quickly enough, I wonder if the federal government can get involved?