Via Turley, it seems that payback came all too quickly for 23 year old Paul Duran Jr.  Apparently, Duran was not really much of a “people person,” having had a fight with his cellmate, requiring him to be moved to another cell.  Safety first, of course, is the motto of all correctional facilities.  There are few things worse than fighting inmates.

Duran was a guest stemming from his involvement in the Oklahoma City shooting of Billy Wayne Ray (you can’t make these names up #1), when he decided to take the plunge and snitch against his dear friend, Jesse James Dalton (you can’t make these names up #2),  Arrested, Duran proclaimed, “no mas” and promptly flipped.  He was led to believe that he has new best friends in powerful places.  This earned him a 28 year sentence.  Woo hoo!

But the fine officers in charge of Duran made a curious decision when they were forced to change cells in Duran’s best interest.  They decided that his new cellmate should be his former pal, Jesse James Dalton.  Fifteen minutes after the reunion, Duran was found beaten to death.

It should come as no surprise that things like this aren’t supposed to happen.  When one co-defendant flips on another, he should be segregated.  While this may prove very difficult in very large, multi-defendant drug conspiracy cases, simply because there aren’t enough wings to hold the various groups and individuals who might prefer not to have a face to face meeting  in the shower, it doesn’t seem that such a problem existed for Duran and Dalton.

Rather, this bears the smell of the corrections officers playing a little payback.  Whether for something Duran did to them while enjoying his extended vacation, or just because they hate snitches as much as everyone else, is hard to say.  But that of all the cells in the prison, they picked Jesse James Dalton’s, does not strike one as mere kismet.    

There are lessons to be learned here.  Some might call them life lessons, under the circumstances.  Lesson number one is that when you commit a crime and go to prison, you will not find it to be a nurturing environment. 

Lesson number two is that corrections officers do not care as deeply for you as your mother, girlfriend or baby-mama.  Lesson number three is that everybody hates a rat, and once a rat, always a rat. 

Lesson number four is that corrections officers don’t truly care if you emerge from prison a better person.  Indeed, they don’t necessarily care if you emerge from prison at all.  This is particularly true if you happen to be a rat.  (See lesson number three.)

I am not saying it should be this way.  I am not saying that it is always this way.  I am, however, saying that it can be this way.  Feeling lucky?