The most recent events at the Penn State University have prompted numerous informal discussions on how well child molesters survive inside prisons and co-exist among the other prisoners. The fact is although their difficulties are somewhat exaggerated, they don’t cope or function very well inside prison unless they are segregated and in protective custody. In a prison hierarchy the molester or anyone who commits crimes against children are the scum of the earth, the prawns of the ocean and the most disposed individuals around. The hate for them can’t cover the enormous resentment, disrespect, and harassed nature of crime that is unacceptable to the majority of prisoners no matter where they are located. Fact is that every prisoner is checked thoroughly for his or her pedigree. A pedigree is a background check that is conducted by someone on the outside via the internet and seek and search case files on persons incarcerated so they can reveal what crimes they have committed, past and present accordingly. This is usually a family member who has access to a computer and relays that information via a letter or a visit.
The prison “code of conduct” requires every prisoner to reveal the pedigree upon arrival of the yard. None are taken at face value and most often, the offenders can be traced by nature of crime reflections via the previous yards they have been assigned to in the past as there are exclusive sex offender yards in almost every prison system that readily identifies them as molesters or sex crime offenders. Today, some prison classification criteria disallow a child molester to go to a sex offender yard if the new crime they were convicted on is not a sex offense. This often results in a severe beating or “hit” upon arrival as they check every new arrival out for such things.
The pedigree is one source for information and is very accurate. The second tactic is the interview by the yard shot callers via their “people” to see if there is any concern about the person’s crime or background. These interviews can be either assertive questioning or physical intervention where they beat the confession out of the offender based on rumors about them. Molesters stand a heavy chance of being assaulted or “stomped down” by his race especially is there was deception used within the conversations. The molester can in fact be useful to those on a yard as they are often required to pay rent e.g. store commissary, and other personal property forfeitures to co-exist under prearranged conditions that provide them protection from others. Once a person has been exposed as a child molester and is threatened, he or she is moved to another yard via a program that allows alternative placements in lieu of protective custody which is a process where the offender is segregated, housed in a isolation unit and basically kept there for the term of their sentence as they are locked up and fed in the cell with minimal amount of time outside the cell. It is almost a 23 hour lock up that is commonly referred to as solitary confinement.
