Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: aidanjm
But why would prisoners want to kill certain other types of prisoners (like child murderers)? Are you saying there is some kind of prison moral code, where certain people are deemed not worthy of life?
Everyone wants to think highly of themselves, even prisoners guilty of murder, rape, etc. Since harming a child is about the scummiest thing anyone could possibly do, these are the people other scummy people look down on.
Right.
National Geographic had a good documentary within the last couple weeks about a California prison, one of the better programs I've seen as far as describing the social structure of a prison. One of the inmates they followed was just starting his sentence, and he was expected to literally keep all his paperwork handy, so other prisoners could verify that he was there for armed robbery as he claimed and not something else.
They have a whole wing of that prison dedicated to child molestors, former cops, rats, and other undesirables, because they're targetted by the other prisoners, who virtually all segregate themselves into gangs, primarily by race. In their own words, prison is all about respect, and if your gang tells you to kill/beat up somebody, you pretty much have to or you're finished. If somebody challenges you, you can't back down.