I saw an HBO special some years ago in which a man said that he had more sex and drugs in prison than he ever had on the streets. That really makes a person wonder. After you finish wondering….you start thinking….how in the world do prisoners get drugs? I’m sure we can all imagine how they get sex, but drugs have to be brought in from the outside world. Well I came across a story that makes us wonder that all over again.

Patrick A. Byers Jr. is an inmate in Baltimore’s Supermax prison. He was caught with a cell phone after allegedly arranging for a witness against him to be murdered. The phone he was caught with had been used to call a second witness in the same case who was so scared that he recanted his statement. How the fuck does an inmate in one of the most allegedly secure prisons in the country have a damn cell phone? Who did he pay to get that? It seems apparent that a guard had to be in on that. You see this is why I think the Iraq war is ridiculous. How does this relate? Well we can’t even keep our own prisoners in America from ordering hits on witnesses. How in the world can we watch over people when we don’t know the language or really understand the culture? We can’t keep our own criminals in line or make sure that they don’t have phones in jail.

I know that guards have a hard job, but something needs to be done about this situation. People who agree to testify shouldn’t have to die because someone didn’t do the job they are paid to do…or rather they did the job the inmate paid them to do and not the one the City of Baltimore paid them to do. The whole situation is very, very, stupid. Patrick A. Byers Jr. faces death for the murder of the witness against him, single father Carl S. Lackl Jr . Let’s hope that the charges stick and the system doesn’t let Carl S. Lackl Jr down again.

Read more about this here.