8-31-2010 Pennsylvania:In 2008, Nicolas Pinto was arrested on federal charges of taking explicit photos and videos of children. He subsequently pleaded guilty, and was supposed to be sentenced in October. But due to the glacial wheels of justice, he's spent the last two years in jail...
And while everyone knows that child porn offenders aren't treated well by fellow inmates, his case shows exactly how brutal life behind bars can be.
He was incarcerated at the Lackawanna County Prison in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From the beginning, he began keeping a diary on his treatment. Fellow inmates and a prison priest back up his tales of vicious abuse.
In his diary, Pinto wrote that guards would make him stand naked in his cell for days on end and chant "kill yourself" over the prison PA system. A fellow inmate says guards would stomp on Pinto's bare toes, parade him naked around common areas, smack him in the head and throw his food in the garbage. The inmate also said that Pinto would be released from his cell with other inmates, then guards would announce over the PA system, "Go get 'em, boys."
Pinto's diary says he was routinely raped by another inmate he called "the silverback."
"First night is bleeding but no penetration," he wrote. "The next night is full-on jailhouse Bubba."
He reported the rapes to guards, but no one would investigate, says Father William Pickard, the prison chaplain. That led to further rapes, after which the guards refused Pinto medical treatment.
