Prison Break

America treats its prisoners way differently from the way we treat ours, I gather.  And love stories too.  If this romance had unfolded within our shores, I wonder how our decision makers would have approached the situation.

See, a jail guard named Nancy Gonzalez had been assigned to watch over the cell block of Ronell Wilson.  Mr. Wilson was in prison because he happened to have murdered two undercover detectives, the deed performed by shooting them at the back of their heads as soon as he climbed into their car.  Mr. Wilson was sentenced to death, and maybe that’s what started all this mess.  Not that his mess wasn’t already messy, but yes, another mess was in the offing.

Mr. Wilson started getting a hankering for leaving a legacy behind.  Before he died, he wanted, as he wrote in his letter, to father a baby “before thiz pigz” took his life away.  Enter Nancy.  We have yet to find out how the courtship went, and what persuasions or blandishments Mr. Wilson employed to sweet talk his way into Nancy’s arms.  But today, Nancy is eight months pregnant.

Perhaps, if they had been more discreet, Nancy’s condition might never have been at issue.  But other inmates snitched on the shenanigans happening inside Mr. Wilson’s cell, and how long hours of conversation were interspersed with a few minutes of quiet time.  Now, Nancy stands accused of taking advantage of Mr. Wilson.

The charge: sexual abuse of a person in custody, and the potential sentence is fifteen years in prison.

Why, you might be wondering, would the female guard be charged?  Well, apparently, prisoners in America don’t have the ability to give consent to sexual relations.  So the instant Mr. Wilson’s jail guard touched him, and regardless of how very willing Mr. Wilson was to find a diversion away from his lonely jail cell and drop his pants, Nancy was in deep trouble.

This isn’t a matter that we give any sort of thought to over in this country.  We hear of conjugal visits in prison, and girlfriends keeping watch over their boyfriends, and even pregnant prisoners, that it somehow seems normal for prisoners to have active sex lives.  And come to think of it, our Revised Penal Code doesn’t seem to strip our dear convicts of their ability to give consent.  (Unless I was absent again on the day that lesson was taught.).

So if this strange romance had occurred here, there wouldn’t have been any sort of outcry.  More likely, there would have been baby showers, and even a marriage performed by a willing priest while Rihanna’s song “We Found Love in a Hopeless Place” was playing in the background.  If the press had gotten wind of it, you bet the mother would have inundated with gifts of baby clothes and cash from total strangers.  Maybe, even a scholarship from a politician, this being an election year, after all.  The couple would have been feted, and if they were even halfway decent looking, a movie contract would have been signed.

No questions would have been raised about the propriety of the romance.  If the guy was big and burly and a murderer, you think the girl would have been accused of taking advantage?  Nah.  Our hearts would have melted, and pretty soon, appeals for clemency would have floated around, so the unfortunate baby would have a chance to get to know his father.

Would it be a good idea to copy America and disable our convicts of their capacity to consent to sexual relations?  We might be risking a riot if that happened.  Not just from the prisoners inside, but also the wives outside.  And what would be the logical result of this disability?  Would wives who visit prisoners now be charged by our fiscals with rape, even if both were happy consenting adults?

Note to self: do not commit crimes in America.  It’s more fun in the Philippines.