Officer may have written message
Posted on 06/04/2002 6:29:04 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Officer may have written message
Online posting proposed revealing names of child molesters to inmates
06/04/2002
Texas prison officials say that a correctional officer apparently is the author of an Internet posting suggesting that the identity of child molesters in prison should be revealed to other inmates.
The message, posted last week on an unofficial message board frequented by correctional officers and other employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the names of child molesters in prison are listed on a Department of Public Safety sex offender database. "Justice will soon be served," the message stated, if the identities of child molesters become known to other inmates.
The officer suspected of writing the message was not identified.
The message was signed "Rudolph Hess," a possible reference to high-ranking Nazi and Hitler confidant Rudolf Hess.
"The suspect was interviewed and has denied writing the message," prison spokesman Larry Todd said in a written statement Monday. "However, the Office of Inspector General is continuing with multiple interviews in its extensive investigation of this potentially criminal matter."
Mr. Todd said that the investigation would address whether any assaults or other misconduct could be attributed to the Hess message.
After the message appeared last week, attorneys representing inmates and parolees raised concerns that it could endanger inmates serving time for sex offenses.
The posting elicited at least one positive reply; others were critical.
Mr. Todd said Monday that the system did not tolerate abuse of inmates or correctional officers. "One rogue officer's promotion of criminal conduct should not reflect on the professionalism or integrity of the remaining 40,000 officers and employees of this agency," he said.
My ex-wife and her sister were sexually abused by their step-father for six years before anyone would take them seriously. It took their mother catching him in the act. He was tried and convicted and sent to prison for several years. From what I've heard and read, he got along with everyone famously - until my ex-wife's first husband (long story) got sent to prison. He saw her former step-father there, and announced in the dining hall what he had done. He spent the remaining time in protective custody, away from the rest of the population - but only after he got his a$$ deservingly kicked a couple times.
When he came up for parole, my ex-wife and her family didn't get proper notification about the hearing, so they didn't get to express their feelings about his being released - so he was set free after five years. The parole board did a great job - when the police went to the address he had listed with them (they were serving a restraining order) it was a vacant lot.
So no, I don't have a problem with them letting the other prisoners know what they did. Whatever might get done to them - it's nowhere close to justice for what they did.
As for some of the other comments here: I am as law and order as you can get. I beleive in the Death Penalty, and in locking up the criminals a la Giuliani. It is for that reason that I think the rampant crime in our prisons is something that we should be ashamed of. We cannot expect better conduct from our less law-abiding citizens if we run instiutions were crime (rape, drug abuse) is so rampant.
The penalty for rape in prison should be death.
Prisoners should be locked up to protect society from them, but while in prisons they should receive a heavy dosage of labor mixed with schooling and religion.
Most importantly, the prisons should be crime-free. No prisoner who goes to jail and experiences such terrible crime could possibly be expected to have respect for the law when released back into society.
Enough said.
Punishment should only be official -- confinement, hard labor, nourishing but tasteless food, limited recreation -- not criminal assault. Criminals who commit serious crimes while in prison should be executed promptly.
Prisoners should be locked up to protect society from them, but while in prisons they should receive a heavy dosage of labor mixed with schooling and religion.Agreed that there should be zero tolerance for crime in prison. For a prison employee to advocate it should be instant firing.Most importantly, the prisons should be crime-free. No prisoner who goes to jail and experiences such terrible crime could possibly be expected to have respect for the law when released back into society.
But no enforced religion. We're talking government, after all. For one thing, which one are you going to enforce?
-Eric
I would not enforce any particular one. I would let the prisoners choose what they want to study, and if they wanted they could opt-in to some sort of morality and ethics training rather than religion.
The point is, aside from work and education there should be some sort of "right and wrong" training.
No one here is advocating "rehabilitation" like the liberals do where the prisoners are told they are special and then released back in to the population. We are talking about locking them up for as long as they can be locked up. The only difference is that while they are there they should be worked and educated, and not exposed to crime that is more rampant than out on the streets.
Criminal in what sense?
Those who sign up and get their GED are more impressive.
Worldwide, recividism is decreased when the prisoneris taught Christian principles. I recognize the church-state implications, but Texas and Prison Fellowship managed to find a way to overcome that hurdle. You can read about it here if you are interested.
I realize that all the inmates of IFI are volunteers, and that a generalization can't be taken to the entire prison population from the results of IFI. But IFI is based on prisons in other nations where it is legal for the prison to be explicitly Christian.
Despite our best interests to create a universe in our own naturalist image, it stubbornly refuses to fit.
Shalom.
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