Did Steven Avery Learn Anything in Prison?
Steven Avery was in trouble at an early age. In 1981, at age eighteen, he broke into a bar and stole a case of beer, sandwiches, and change. He received probation. The following year, he admitted to setting a cat on fire. The additional charge was enough to revoke his probation. He spent two years in prison.
In January, 1985, he ran a Manitowoc County deputy sheriff’s wife off the road, pointed a rifle at her and ordered her into his car. When she showed Avery her infant, he relented. He readily confessed and gave a reason for the attack: she claimed he was naked in his yard. There apparently was no attempt to determine what his plans were after the abduction. Nor, was there any attempt to see the basis of his allegation against the woman or how he justified such a violent reaction and committed such a serious offense.
He was now a felon possessing a firearm. For the possession and endangerment, he received a
While he was waiting to start this term in prison, the sexual assault occurred that led to his false imprisonment. What followed was a classic case of making the evidence fit the accused. Those in charge refused to consider any evidence, concern, or course of action contrary to what they had fixated on in the early stages of the investigation.
Avery received a
Avery served eighteen years and, assuming serving the full six years on the endangerment charges, twelve years for the crime committed by another. In 2003, he was free.
Then came the October 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. During the investigation, he was arrested as a felon in possession of a firearm. A black powder muzzle loader and a 22 caliber semiautomatic were found in Avery’s house trailer. The muzzle loader had a tape affixed with Steve written on it. The rifle belonged to the owner of the house trailer where Avery lived.
This was the second time that Avery was arrested for being a felon with a firearm. The first prison sentence did not prevent that. The second much longer prison sentence did not prevent that.
Why would people knowingly put themselves in jeopardy? Arrests in Wisconsin for felons possessing of a firearm occur sometimes due to game wardens checking hunters. The muzzle loader could be considered a hobby firearm, but there it uses gunpowder and fires a projectile. Are starting pistols and stage pistols considered firearms? Flare pistols are safety devices but also can be used as a weapon.
In Wisconsin, there is a requirement that felons should are informed about the consequences of possession. But, there are no consequences for prison officials not doing their duty. The Wisconsin Legislature has made the felony possession independent of officials not doing their job. Felons are a lot like other persons. They need to be told what will get them into trouble to avoid those actions.
While serving the second prison term, Avery wrote letters to his children in which he threatened their mother. Steven also wrote a letter to his wife with a threat that he would kill her. He didn’t see any problem with making those threats. Was this something he learned while in prison? The consequence was a loss of contact with his children.
According to Special Prosecutor Ken Kratz, Avery learned the concept of torture and murder while in prison. Kratz claims there are prisoners who were in contact with Avery, and they claim that he drew plans for a torture chamber and told of plans of torture and murder of young women. If true, this was new behavior for Avery.
There were other things to learn as well, like how to live as a prisoner; how to have others dictate what to do; and where to do it and how high to jump.
Then at the end, he was released with a: You’re free to go. I hope you have a ride.
There was no orientation on what to expect. There was no warning about the judgmental behaviors of others. There was no guidance on how to get employment as a citizen with the stamp of undesirability.
Since the 2003 release, he has had further minor brushes with the law. That is, until the Halbach murder.
There is an expectation by citizens and lawmakers that prisons should be some kind of magic box. Put criminals in the front and cured people will come out the back. Since that doesn’t work, and people often come out worse that they entered, then it must be the fault of the criminal. This is a form of magic that is supposed to take place that doesn’t. Citizens cannot accept that this is a problem with their magical thinking.
Avery is not the only person to be wrongfully imprisoned for an extended time. Gary Dotson spent ten years in prison for sexual assault after testimony by a person he never met; who had not been sexual assaulted; and who knew she was lying under oath. Competent investigators and prosecutors would have recognized this false claim of sexual assault. His treatment by officials was even worse than that of Avery. He came out of prison with behavior problems due to his treatment while incarcerated, yet some blamed him for not learning anything.
So, did Steven Avery learn anything while in prison? Maybe, but not the right stuff.
Do citizens, corrections people, judges, and attorneys learn anything by the prison experience in this country?
Persons enter Federal prisons and come out gang members. Corrections guards are degraded by their experience and some then return the degradation to prisoners and behaviors between the two sides become indistinguishable.
When released, wrongfully imprisoned people are expected to be as whole as when they entered. The common expectation is that their prison experience should have no effect on their life and
We have a judicial system that believes keeping the innocent in prison is more important than accepting that some of the legal precedents and rules are just plain wrong.
We have a legal system that allows prosecutors to withhold evidence and unscrupulous police to engage in shallow thinking and gather only convenient evidence.
We have lawmakers making laws that target poor young males (think genocide). We have lawmakers who legislate an increasing number of crimes to incarcerate citizens and place an increasing number and amount of fees on those convicted of even the most minor offenses.
And citizens don’t catch onto the fact that they may have to spend their life’s resources to defend themselves, and they will face a jury that is just as stereotyping and prejudging as themselves.
So if Avery didn’t learn the rules while in prison or if Avery learned some behaviors in prison that are antisocial, he not much different then the rest of society; except most members of society don’t have to spend time in prison to learn the wrong stuff.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Steven Avery
