AP - Inmate Web Sites Draw Criticism From Victims Tuesday, July 24, 2001
WICHITA, Kan. — Some crime victims say they
are appalled that prison inmates have access
to Web sites that allow them to place personal advertisements
promoting themselves as lonely hearts.
For example, convicted killer Sakone Donesay sent an ad to
Prisonpenpals.org that says he's looking for companionship and to, in his
words, "maybe collide with someone whom would not mind sharing intellect
and intimate conversation."
The site and others like it -- including Jailbabes.com, Ladiesofthepen.com
and Meet-an-inmate.com -- disgust the father of Donesay's victim.
"Does it say anywhere on there that he is a cop killer?" said Rick Easter.
Donesay, then 14, shot and killed Easter's son Kevin, a Sedgwick County
sheriff's deputy, during a foot chase in 1996. "He's a hardened criminal.
That's the kind of thing he could easily use to take advantage of someone."
Someone who sees the smiling face of the person who harmed them or a
family member is victimized again, said Corinne Radke, a victims advocate
with Parents of Murdered Children in Wichita.
Reading about what sensitive, caring people they claim to be is even worse.
"Most of them are lying," she said.
But operators defend the sites, saying they help prisoners maintain a
connection to the community.
"In most cases, the prisoners are just looking for a good friend," said Tracie
Lamourie, director of the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
which operates a free Web site that allows prisoners to meet pen pals and
display their poetry and writings. "Strong relationships have been built, and
that's important."
Prison officials, who starting receiving complaints about the sites about three
years ago, say there is not much that can be done about them.
Kansas Corrections spokesman Bill Miskell said some people concerned
about the sites are under the misconception that the prisoners have access
to the Internet.
"They do not," Miskell said. "But we can't stop them from sending mail to
friends or family and having them contact the Internet company. We can't stop
them from receiving mail they get in response, either."
Prison officials are allowed to monitor mail only for specific reasons, such as
escape plans or plotting a crime.
Miskell advises caution. He said although there are inmates looking only for
a connection with the community, others are looking to manipulate someone.
For example, prisoners tell pen pals they're getting out of jail next month and
need money for a bus ticket, he said.
The pen pal might send $100, which the prisoner, who isn't getting out
anytime soon, will deposit in an account used to buy items from the prison
commissary, Miskell said.
"People need to be careful," he said. "That's the best defense."
Der Spiegel - German Newsmagazine July 9, 2001
www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkultur/0,1518,142475,00.html
ENGLISH TRANSLATION : FROM Der Spiegel
D E A T H R O W O N L I N E
The Voice of the Condemned
By Tobias Moorstedt
In the USA more than 3500 People are sitting in the death row, many of them after
questioning processes. The internet gives them the possibility to communicate with the
outside.
John McDewberry doesn´t have much time left and he has a lot to say. For seven years
the now 24 year-old sits in the deathrow of the little village Livingston in Texas and his
last chance drifts away to escape the death on the order of state. For an
appeal-process however the young Texan lacks money. Because of this he calls on the
world-publicity in the internet: "This is a cry for help!" McDewberry writes on his website.
And: "I am innocent, but can´t afford a lawyer."
Like John McDewberry some hundred inmates of the deathrows in the USA have a
website. In the Internet the inmates show their views - here they are looking for contacts
to the outside, ask for funds or to bomb the responsible district attorney with
protest-mails.
Life in the deat-cell writes John McDewberry, is a life in silence. The internet is a gate to
the outside world for the prisoners. Unlikely the zero-medium tv, the internet not only
offers pictures and information; one can also be in action with the great wide world. A
bit at least. The internet is the voice of the condmned. Somehow.
Because of this John McDewberry writes for his life. Tells, how everything happened, at
that time, at christmas eve in the year 1994. How he started the day with a real
hangover and how he than, five hours later, with swollen face was standing at the
house-wall, in his back six policemen, who first hit befor asking question. However
evidences for his sights of view he rarely has. He just has the many lines and both
pictures on his website.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, the USA executed
more than 700 people. 84 last year alone. Executions became daily routine in
America.
But it´s just a few weeks ago that the world has been watching a building in Terre Haute,
Oklahoma, where the live of Timothy McVeigh was coming to an end. Never before it
has been so much rumour about an execution. Timothy McVeigh should die, who
bombed 168 persons to death four years ago. For some days Timothy McVeigh was
standing in the middle again. And his words on the front page of nearly every page: "I
am the lord of my faith, captain of my soul."
Not all inmates in american death-cells get so much publicity like McVeigh. And
publicity is in a time, where trials ruled in the media as well, often the only thing that
differs between a fast execution and a new taking up of investigations.
For example the case of Anthony Graves. The description of his case in the internet
persuaded the lawyer Robert E. Greenwood of his innocence. The case was resumed.
New evidences came before court. Today Anthony Graves has a good chance to leave
prison alive says his lawyer.
But Anthony Graves is a single case. Very seldom the protest and the engagement of
human rights organisations make a difference at all.
And than there are stories in the internet like the one of Olga Parlante, who was found
with cut throat on the bottom of her living room in 1997. Her son hat made a virtual burial
place in the internet with stars, angels and a lot of crosses. The virtual grave of Olga
Parlante is just one of more than 1800 on the cyber-cemetry for murder-victims, the
texan Charleene hall has made up. "In the Internet, there are only websites against the
death penalty", Hall writes on her homepage. "But what about the murder victims?"
Hall wants to give the dead a voice and she is sure: If the dead could talk, the would
scream for revenge. She doesn´t understand people, who are fighting against the death
penalty. "They should inform themselves better, before the feel so sorry about these
murderers."
"As long as prisoners are waiting for death", Tracy Lamourie would than probably reply,
"we have to give them a voice. Even if they lie." Lamourie is the chair of the Canadian
Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CCADP) and every week letters by people on
death row reach her; poems and photos and "new evidences". If it´s true than what´s on
the website, the reader has to value by himself.
After the execution of an inmate, tells Lamouie, she takes the respective site out of the
net very soon. Because time doesn´t stand still and more people are condemned to
death and the capacity of the server is limited. "The internet is our best weapon" says
Lamourie. But: Many inmates are in their cells for so long, they don´t know what the
internet is.
- Der Spiegel online edition (in German)
