No Protection for Sex Offenders

The Bureau of Prisons has a rule that no inmate can possess a copy of his/her PSI (Pre-Sentence Investigation report) while in prison. Why? Because the PSI discloses the inmate’s crime, and it lists all of the supporting evidence in his/her case. The BOP banned inmates from having these to guard against prisoners discriminating against each other.

Before the rule was implemented, inmates would ask to see the PSI from any suspicious newcomer to determine if he/she was locked up for a sex offense. Banning the PSI was a good idea, but the rule has its flaws. Although you can’t have a PSI, you can have any other incriminating paperwork that you want, and it doesn’t have to be your paperwork!

Remember Penguin Fudd? When I told my family that I had to assault him just so the cops would do their job and keep me safe, they looked him up on the Internet. He had been locked up for 10 years in a Florida state prison on a rape charge. He caught his federal case when he failed to register as a sex offender.

My family looked up his old sex offense on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s website, and they printed his “Sexual Predator” flyer. The flyer has Fudd’s name, offense, address, birth date, height, weight, and a HUGE color mugshot. Then my family printed out an online newspaper article about his court case, and mailed both items to me. Basically, my family wanted to know if they found the right person. Well, YEAH! (BTW, the prison mailroom opens all incoming mail to look for contraband. I guess they thought it was appropriate for me to have incriminating paperwork on another prisoner.)

To put it simply, if we were at a higher security institution, this paperwork could get him killed. All I would have to do is make 10 or so copies at the Xerox machine, then start leaving them in random places on the compound. The copies would circulate quickly through the prison, and Fudd would be a dead man.

Even at a low security prison like this one, an inmate can get attacked if it becomes known that he is a sex offender. I know of a newcomer who got assaulted while in the shower, and he had only been here for four hours. He got jumped simply because he was old. If you’re in prison and you look older than fifty, inmates will automatically assume that you are an s.o. If you aren’t, you had better produce some paperwork mighty fast, or you WILL have problems.

So what will I do with Fudd’s paperwork? Will I send it to the gremlins to exact my revenge? No. What I will do is send it to a cop I trust in here, along with a nasty letter asking how papers like this are allowed through the mailroom.

Though this is a dangerous problem, I doubt anything will be done. The police here don’t seem to care about our safety. The status quo around here seems to be letting sex offenders fend for themselves.