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Best Friend is Going to Federal Prison
ChrisDude
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Sorry about the length, but this is a complicated issue.
A tiny bit of background: About a year and a half ago one of my best friends had his home raided by the FBI because someone sent him child pornography through a program he used for regular pornography. They found the child pornography on his computer and until about 3 months ago was continuing his life as normal (as normal as it oculd be at that point), then 3 months ago they put him in county jail until the sentencing.
Today he was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison with 2 years of parole afterwards for possession of child pornography.
His lawyer said that good behavior should take off abut 15% of the sentence, and the time he already served would count. So by my calculations, that leaves about 36 months, which is 3 years. I'm not sure how secure of a facility he's going to yet.
This is understandably very hard on his family and also myself, I just got done bawling for about half an hour. But now that I'm kind of over the initial shock, all I want to do is make this as easy as possible for everyone involved. I've already told his family that I will help them with anything they need, but I really have no idea what else to do. I also want to help him make his time in prison go as smoothly as possible.
I'm kind of at a loss as for what to ask, so just general advice for him and for his family would be extremely appreciated.
I did a little bt of searching for stuff on the internet and I found this website - http://www.federal-prison.org/ - it has a book for sale about what to expect and stuff, and I was wondering if this was legit of if it's not worth it.
A tiny bit of background: About a year and a half ago one of my best friends had his home raided by the FBI because someone sent him child pornography through a program he used for regular pornography. They found the child pornography on his computer and until about 3 months ago was continuing his life as normal (as normal as it oculd be at that point), then 3 months ago they put him in county jail until the sentencing.
Today he was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison with 2 years of parole afterwards for possession of child pornography.
His lawyer said that good behavior should take off abut 15% of the sentence, and the time he already served would count. So by my calculations, that leaves about 36 months, which is 3 years. I'm not sure how secure of a facility he's going to yet.
This is understandably very hard on his family and also myself, I just got done bawling for about half an hour. But now that I'm kind of over the initial shock, all I want to do is make this as easy as possible for everyone involved. I've already told his family that I will help them with anything they need, but I really have no idea what else to do. I also want to help him make his time in prison go as smoothly as possible.
I'm kind of at a loss as for what to ask, so just general advice for him and for his family would be extremely appreciated.
I did a little bt of searching for stuff on the internet and I found this website - http://www.federal-prison.org/ - it has a book for sale about what to expect and stuff, and I was wondering if this was legit of if it's not worth it.
Chris Pennell Is A Huge Nerd - My blog. I talk about nerd-ish things a lot.
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Anyways...homeland defense raided his house and took his pc. He went to prison. His excuse, "he was curious". Whatever. The fact of the matter was that he had been looking the stuff up for several months and they had been tracking his actions.
His sentence was less than your friends....so I don't buy the story that he just had them on his computer. There's more to it than that...
When he goes to prison...he will be labeled a "cho-mo". That's what my bro-in-law was labeled. Cho-mo = child molester. Even though he didn't do anything to a kid...it's fucking child porno. In any case...he's going to get a lot of dirty looks and nasty shit coming his way depending on the prison they send him too. My bro-in-law was sent to a fed prison though..and it was very lax. Basically...the people that do nilly willy crimes go here. In the 3 years he was there, there was only one knifing he said. And all the guys talked about how pansy this place was compared to others. If your friend is lucky, he will go to a prison like that.
If he's not so lucky, then he's got some really rough prison time coming his way. And we rarely talk to this specific bro-in-law anymore...he didn't change a bit after his time in prison. And he has 3 little girls. I worry.
Neither help, nor advice.
Seriously, the only thing you can do is kinda learn over time what is allowed and what's not. The first few weeks are likely gonna be hard, then it'll get a bit better as he gets "used" to it.
He's probably going to have times where he feels shittier than normal, bouts of homesickness if you will. Make sure you go on some extra visits.
When you find out what prision he's going to I would communicate with the prison to see exactly what is allowed and what's not from your end. What you can send him, and how often, when/how often/long you can visit. Phone call privileges, that kind of thing.
The best advice I can give, for someone who's never been in prison, and never knowing anyone who's been in prison for more than one night(stupid drunkenness), is to make sure he feels as connected to his family and friends as possible. That should make the time go a little faster.
He's currently in county prison, and a group of us kind of decide who's gonna go see him each week. Unfortunatly it sounds as if he's going to be moved out of state so we won't be able to have much face-to-face contact. I do plan on getting the address to write to him though if he gets moved. I don't want him to forget that he has people that care about him and will help him through this. His parents are also very supportive and I know they will do what they can also.
Why do you worry about him? So what if he likes looking at pictures of nakes kids...ok that is really word and not normal but it doesn't mean he is going to rape his children. If you like looking at milf porn does that mean you want to fuck your mother? No.
I can't believe he is going to jail for this either, it sounds like complete bullshit, maybe the ACLU can help, they are pretty crazy about liberties.
Whatever...there are plenty of reasons to worry. Not about him...I worry about his 3 little girls and their incredibly stupid, naive mom. They drank all the time and fought and argued...punched holes in the wall and shit like that. We stopped talking to them and partying with them due to that. Then...we find out he's going to prison for child porno and listened to his story. She was stupid enough to believe him that he wasn't doing it and this and that...but then the case came and the truth came out. Yeah...
Edit: and now that he's back...they are back to drinking all the time and running up a huge credit debt. Acting like nothing ever happened. Only a matter of time before the fighting commences.
Edit 2: And that's another reason why I wonder if there isn't more to the story. Just a pic can get you in a lot of trouble...but there would have to be a lot of pics and stuff like that. If he could reasonably prove that it was just in his email or whatever program and someone sent it to him and that was it...then he wouldn't be spending time in prison for it.
For.... for child porn? I don't really know how to respond to this. To agree with noir_blood, a judge or a jury of his peers heard the arguments on both sides and found him guilty. Unless you were in the courtroom, it's hard to have an opinion on whether this is "bullshit" or not (which applies to me too). It's a federal crime and it exploits children who are often virtually or literally enslaved and raped. So. Yeah.
ANYWAY, it's going to be a bit rough for him. Find out what kind of prison he's going to, and what their records are with respect to violence. He might have to register as a sex offender when he leaves, which is really unfortunate (not sure about this one, though... check your state/local laws).
Write him lots of letters. Seriously. Everyone says that getting mail in prison makes it bearable, since you remember that there are people on the outside that you'll be returning to. It keeps you looking at the future and not thinking about how shitty your situation is.
I'd love to see the where in the Bill of Rights we have the right to look at kiddy porn. The ACLU has enough issues that actually matter that they don't need to get involved with helping pedos get out of jail time.
By the way, you never know how this shit can get on your knees as a friend of a friend of mine was prosecuted for viewing preview images on Easynews' search results. Some of these sick bastards have a way of naming kiddie porn in a specially ordered regular porn words. He downloaded it, saw that it was kiddie porn, deleted it immediately but still got in a lot of trouble. He was able to prove his innocense at the end though through some technical details.
I'm just going by the little that the lawyer said when he was talking to my firend's family afterwards. I just know what I've heard from my friend and his family for the most part, I'm not sure when i'll get more information.
By the way, I don't want this thread to turn into an argument about child pornography. It's terrible, evil stuff and we all know that. The fact is is that the thing (as far as I know) is done and this is what is happening. I'm not looking for advice on the past, I'm looking for advice on the present and future.
Does anyone know of any books or websites that might give some insight into this? I've been seeing a lot of websites hocking books about surviving federal prison, but I don't know if any of them are legit or not.
See, Amazon.com has this neat thing where people rate how good something in on a scale of 1-5. Seeing as how many people here have probably never been to prison, I fail to see what kind of advice you are expecting to be useful. My advice is to look on Amazon.com and buy the book with the highest ratings. The same way you'd buy a TV.
I heard this guy talking about his services on the radio and he seemed pretty legit.
If you think about it is like downloading porn thinking it is some hot chick but it ends up being a pack of child porn.
Ironically, the former head of the Virginia ACLU was recently sent away for child pornography.