Brickbat: Group Effort

Steven Nicholas Wimmer, a former corrections officer at Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, West Virginia, received a sentence of nine years in prison followed by three years of probation for his role in the 2022 death of an inmate. Wimmer and fellow officer Andrew Fleshman pleaded guilty in November 2023, admitting they conspired with others to use excessive force against an inmate—identified in court documents only as Q.B.—after he tried to push past another officer. They restrained, handcuffed, and escorted Q.B. to an interview room, where they and other officers struck and injured him, causing his death. Three other officers, Mark Holdren, Corey Snyder, and Johnathan Walters, pleaded guilty in November 2024 for using unreasonable force, while two others admitted to failing to intervene.

Comments

[AT]

Plead guilty, got a sentence. Not really much to talk about here.

Unless we'd like to talk about prison reform. Specifically, turning them from dungeons where the inmates are allowed to play with each other and cause all manner of problems, into modernized private cells that require minimal supervision because the inmates never ever leave said cell until their sentence is up.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

No reform necessary, dudes can stay in chick prison so long as the dude is mentally disturbed

[Stupid Government Tricks]

The problem is that only works if you intend to never release any prisoners, so their mental state never matters. If you do intend to release them eventually, it would be an almighty good thing if they were still recognizably human and able to interact with society in ways that weren't predatory and didn't end up with another police action and trial and resumption of their isolation from society.

Current prisons are the worst of all possible compromises, since the only society they socialize with during their years in prison are other prisoners. That's a lot of bad role models, and all they learn is how to be better criminals once they're released.

Of course I have lots of brainstorming ideas —

* Allow prisoners to visit nearby towns an hour a day. Not very practical. It assumes they can be trusted to not run away.

* Set up some side yard, a little fake cafe with tables and waitresses, where a few prisoners at a time are allowed to socialize with ten times as many free citizens who volunteer to talk with the prisoners, and are also allowed to beat up any prisoner who touches them. Of course everything would have to be filmed, and every beating would have to be reviewed, with the burden on the prisoners to show they hadn't deserved their beating. Better, but still not very practical.

* Allow one prisoner at a time to go into town on his own. If he doesn't come back, on his own, by the prescribed curfew, his three best prison friends are tortured or executed once he is found and brought back. Yeah, that's not gonna fly.

The point is, prison is a lousy system. I bet 90% of prisoners don't really belong there. Aside from all the victimless crimes, how many are actually a danger to society in the form of murder and assault? Sure, robbery sucks and deserves punishment, but there's something perverse about locking some dude up for stealing a $100 car radio and causing $1000 of ancillary damage, when jail costs $40,000 a year and his victim's only restitution is higher insurance premiums. Maybe the ones that aren't a physical danger to people should be left out of prison, wearing ankle bracelets. Or maybe they should be required to live in prison and released during the day to go to work. But that's what probation and parole are supposed to allow today, sort of, and they sure don't work so well.

Maybe some prisoners are just not redeemable. But we sure don't handle that well either.

Prisons suck. But I doubt there's many criminals who didn't know that before they became criminals. Prisons don't seem to be a very good deterrent.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Freeze them and implant knitting skills...

[AT]

"I'm a seamstress?!"

[AT]

The problem is that only works if you intend to never release any prisoners, so their mental state never matters.

Their mental state will be fine. You, however, have just illustrated how you've yet to elevate yourself from the "dungeon"-style prison paradigm. You're still thinking in terms of bars and walls.

We live in 2025. Look at all the tech we have. Virtual education. Telecom - for everything from court appearances to Christmas morning with the family (obviously this would be screened incoming only and recorded, no outgoing/privacy unless it's to their lawyer). The compendium of human knowledge in our pockets. Biometric monitoring. More entertainment and literature on demand than we could ever hope to digest. And if you're really that worried about social interaction, offer mutually-consented to cellmates, having first screened that they're complete strangers to each other. Outfit the cells with all this (plus the obvious - bed, toilet, sink, shower), give them a window that opens to daylight and fresh air and closes to inclement weather; a slot under the door so they can received meals chosen from a menu for their three square, and swap out their laundry daily and their linens weekly - and then leave them in the damned cell.

I know people, in America, Europe, and Asia, who effectively live like this WILLINGLY. The only difference is they can open their door. That's one of two privileges the convict loses when imprisoned. Otherwise, it's entirely humane.

(The other, by the way, is the elimination of privacy. EVERYTHING is constantly recorded. More for the benefit of the inmate than the prison. So if a cook screws with a meal, or a guard spits in the inmates food, or an inmate gets his toiletries withheld or whatever else - it's all on camera.)

Allow prisoners to visit nearby towns an hour a day.

NO. Absolutely not. All of your brainstorms are counterproductive to the PURPOSE of prison, and worse miss the fundamental problem plaguing our current prison system.

The whole root of the current prison problem is that inmates are allowed physical interaction with others. THAT'S what has to be curbed as much as possible. The whole point of prison is isolating them from society, but we forget that prison becomes a little sub-society of its own - often a much harsher and brutal one with daily abuses. This is intolerable. They are wards of the state, and our highest priority should be that they suffer NO harm from any other inmate or prison staff. I'll go so far as to say it's violative of 8A to fail in that regard. That's why a modern prison, as described above, is the correct solution - it it minimizes the potential for prison abuses as close to elimination as we can get it.

We have to isolate the convicts from both society, and the prison itself. Minimize any interactions whatsoever with the guards (whose staffing needs would be GREATLY reduced), eliminate ALL interactions whatsoever with other inmates (with the exception of the mutually-consented to stranger celly, maybe), eliminate prisoner visitation and work programs. The inmate goes in and, barring a catastrophic medical emergency, doesn't see another human in real life until his sentence is up. On his video screen behind a sheet of plexiglass, sure. But that's it.

The prison staff would mainly be cooks/maintenance, an on-site surgical-certified doctor (with a complete medical suite) and PA/nurse, and a handful of guards monitoring video cameras and transporting food/laundry to the cells three times a day.

Oh, and one more thing - the prison itself is designed vertically. Inmate housing starts on the 4th floor.

I bet 90% of prisoners don't really belong there.

Wrong. 100% of them actually belong there (at least in America, can't speak to other nations). Even the wrongfully convicted.

To suggest otherwise means you don't in any way accept 1) the American rules of evidence and criminal procedure; 2) the American criminal justice system; and worst 3) rule of law.

You seem to think that prison exists for the sake of protecting society from criminals. That's true, but it's an incomplete truth. The criminal justice system is retributive in nature (it was never intended to be rehabilitative - that's a "progressive" notion that came much later). It's a punishment. It's why it's a justified government expenditure, even when the valuation of "amount of crime" vs "amount of imprisonment" seems unbalanced.

Maybe the ones that aren't a physical danger to people should be left out of prison, wearing ankle bracelets. Or maybe they should be required to live in prison and released during the day to go to work.

And maybe you just want to facilitate the escaping of criminals who are punished because of your moral objection to the aforementioned 1-3. That seems more likely. Especially given your final line on the subject.

[rbike]

Our church has a group of men who are allowed to visit the state prison 20 miles away. The volunteers spend 4 hours a week with prisoners who want to meet with them. Several released prisoners have become members of the church. Assistance - cars/ transportation/housing/ etc. has been provided to some who show promise, get involved. I may go help sometime after retirement in a few years. This program is across the river in Illinois, not in Iowa where I live.

[AT]

Great. I can counter with some several released prisoners who were radicalized by Islam in custody.

They need to be isolated. Period. If they express an interest in the Church, they can do the same thing that all the Church-goers did during Covid. Telecoms make that possible. Not ideal, but they made it work. If someone among your group wants to help, they can call the prison and offer a videoconference. Obviously this should be monitored. (Maybe an exception for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But certainly not for anything Islamic.)

But do not let the inmates out of the cell. There is no reason you can offer - other than catastrophic medical emergency (and yea, I'll include Last Rites there) - that justifies doing so. None.

[rbike]

Oh, you do have a point, not trying to disagree. But some prisoners may voluntarily choose to seek to improve themselves. Give some an opportunity. The program I am familiar with is all voluntary. I am sure some prisoners remain rotting in their cells and not involving themselves in the programming.

[AT]

Give some an opportunity.

Nothing I've suggested obviates giving them said opportunity. In fact, it encourages it. But it does so from in a cell from which they never leave, and their human interaction is contained to a face on a screen. Heck, maybe we can even incorporate some haptic tech if we want them to feel hugs.

The point is, we have the technology. I support your charitable efforts 100%. But it does not change the fact that there is no valid reason whatsoever (outside of catastrophic medical emergency) to EVER remove inmates from the cell. There was 100, 50, even 25 years ago. Now there's not. Why we keep pretending otherwise, that's the "dungeon" mindset at work, because we refuse to think beyond it.

Like I told SGT - you have to shift your paradigm from seeing prisons as a dungeons, to seeing them something better and improved through technology.

I frankly think we should shutter every single active prison in America. They're inhumane, for no reason other than their potential for violence/abuse while incarcerated. But we don't need to compromise criminal justice towards that end. Instead, we need to eliminate the potential for abuse. Build a modern 2025 and evolving tech-based prison (vertically, as I said) in every state, keep the inmates permanently in their abuse-proof cells until their release date, and shutter the bars/walls dungeon prisons paradigm forever.

The opportunity is in that cell. The tech is there. They can take advantage of it, or they can piss it away. Opportunity is theirs in this modernized prison I'm suggesting.

[Incunabulum]

You're describing 'The Prisoner' Number 6.

[Incunabulum]

Someone had to give up part of their life to get that radio, robbery is stealing that part of their life.

And no one ends up with a long-term custodial sentence for stealing *once*.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The prisons can keep themselves in business perpetually if Wimmer et al brush past guards themselves.

[Don't look at me! (#1 on the “muted” list!)]

Is a vicious loop.

[TangoDelta]

"They restrained, handcuffed, and escorted Q.B. to an interview room, where they and other officers struck and injured him, causing his death."
So willfully negligent homicide at one end or some form of murder at the other.

[Malvolio]

A CO in prison for killing an inmate? Those are going to be nine long years. Presumably, he’ll be segregated but still.