When  posting about US District Judge Robert Dawson statement when sentencing Wal-Mart executive Tom Coughlin, “prison would threaten the life of a nonviolent offender,” the commentary was directed toward a nice, white-collar federal defendants being incarcerated in a nice, white-collar federal prison camp.  These camps have been called “Club Fed,” which may be an overstatement, but only slightly.  I was less than convinced that this was a life-threatening situation.

Commenters related stories of nonviolent prisoners who would not be so lucky as to get a free, all-expense paid vacation at Club Fed.  If Judge Dawson feared for Coughlin’s life in federal custody, what of those people who would spend their time in state prisons?

This is a whole ‘nother animal.  The nature of crimes for which people go to state prison tends to be very different.  State crimes are what are thoughtfully called garden variety, meaning regular violent crime, common drug dealing, run of the mill fraud, theft and burglary.  Not the stuff that headlines are made of.  Not the stuff that Congress takes under its wing.

But when it comes to the mix of violent and non-violent, state prisons are the champs.  They tend to be uglier, dirtier and far less capable of matching the nature of the crime and criminal to a security level that bears any appropriate relation.  Too many criminals all thrown together in the big house, left to their own devices to survive.

Now we’re in the realm that justifies Judge Dawson’s fear.  It’s not just a matter of being life-threatening, but surviving the daily threat of violent assault and sexual assault.  Some will say that anyone who winds up in there gets what they deserve, but of course no one is sentenced to be sexually assaulted daily by other, stronger, meaner, more violent prisoners. 

No one has figured out a way to deal with the problem when “criminals”, whether violent or peaceful, of all types are put in a big room and left to deal with each other according to the rules of the jungle.  Groups develop for self-protection, but even they have a price of admission.  There’s no school to teach prison culture and survival before being told to survive, or not. 

It’s not that prison should be fun and pleasant.  It’s that prison should not be tantamount to a death sentence, or even the mere daily physical or sexual assault.  The feds have seen fit to create such places as Club Fed to separate the nonviolent, the nonthreatening, the white-collar, convict from others.  States have largely failed to make this distinction, and we’ve all known this forever.

An advertisement for an HBO show “Oz” asked, in substance: “It’s your first day in prison.  Who will get you first, the gangs, the crack addicts or the guards?”  It may only be a TV show, but the point remains.  Judge Dawson’s point was correct, but only slightly misdirected.