In their own words: Internet sex offenders explain, excuse, deflect

The Times wrote to 51 people from January to March who are serving prison sentences for child-pornography, internet-related or child sexual abuse crimes, inviting them to answer questions about their crimes and penalties. Thirteen inmates responded, including some who had not received letters but were recruited by inmates who did. Here are excerpts, unedited, from letters written by inmates who gave us permission to publish their remarks:

Why did you seek out child sexual abuse images?

Inmate, who signed his name only as "William" and who was recruited by another offender serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas: “Curiosity’ is what attracts people to child porn. It is something you have never seen before, so when you do see it, your like wait a minute, what was that? So you investigate, and when you do, it has a way of pulling you in, then before you know it, you have looked at hundreds of images of little kids doing things that little kids should know nothing about let alone be involved in.”

Russell Guillory, convicted of possessing child pornography, serving a 10-year sentence at Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas: "As my marriage started falling apart, so did my job. I started spiraling. And I felt even more alone. At the time the people closest to me always took things personally so I felt like I had no one to talk to. So I looked online and started chatting with people. I’m not sure how the topic came up but it was mentioned as a way to escape. They told me places to look for it. I wasn’t thinking straight. I looked it up.”

Jesse Ward, convicted of transporting child pornography, serving a 20-year sentence at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana: “I went back to it for multiple reasons, one was because of the Taboo nature of the images themselves. There was a ‘rush’ of being involved in that world knowing I shouldn’t. There was the general curiosity of the Internet. Part of it was the sexual excitement from the images themselves, part of it was ease of access.”

How has being arrested for your crime impacted you?

Brian Musomba, a Kenyan extradited to the United States after being convicted on a count of child exploitation enterprise, serving a life term at the Pollock Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana: “There is no way the Kenyan authorities would have allowed me to come to the USA to eat meatloaf, chicken, mincemeat and other luxurious foods (compared to prison food in Kenya) if they had any credible sex offense evidence against me. The matters that constitute a sex offense in Kenya were far more serious than just posting child porn. My time in prison has been peaceful.”

Jesse Ward: “To begin with, this arrest devestated my family. My mother mentally shut down and was barely able to survive it all. My grandparents were tore up. My Grandfather who was on end stage cancer treatment was hospitalized by the news. My friends and all were blown away. I became suicidal and lost mentally at what was happening as the gravity of the situation became clear. The Feds/media treated me as if I was a horrible monster and I struggled with that for years.”

Russell Guillory: "In Louisiana the registration prohibits living within so many feet of a park or going to them. That seems straightforward, but when you look closer, campgrounds and public waterways are classified as parks. So I can’t legally go camping or fishing unless it’s private property. Also Louisiana’s registration restricts its registered citizens from working in an industry that requires them to go on to a person’s property to provide a service. Think of how many jobs that eliminates. Before this I was a licensed plumber, and a good one. I took pride in what I did. Now I will be limited to commercial jobs only that don’t fall into any other restriction.”

From an inmate whose name was indecipherable, serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas: “My crime took place over the Internet, on Facebook, and involved nude pictures of a 17-year-old and her 13-year-old friend. I was 21-years-old at the time my crime was committed. Upon my release I am not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18, without prior written consent from my probation officer. That means if my P.O. wanted to keep me away from my own sons, who will be 15 and 13 upon my release, he would be able to. I also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of my life because of something I did as a 21-year-old.”

Do you regret what you did?

Brian Musomba: “Was it not the case, back in the early 20th century and beyond, that men would marry of their children to adult men. I dare say that a significant portion of the US population are descendants of paedophiles and therefore we could argue that their genes are so ordered. The US govt knew my religious inclinations so my incarceration is an act of persecution that the bible teaches is inevitable when you practice the teachings of King Jesus.”

Jesse Ward: “I’ve spent the past 10 years analyzing my past, my behavior in the CP (child pornography) communities and studying everything I could to get a better understanding of how this happened. I didn’t really understand how I had got to that point and what it said about me until I spent alot of time in self-analysis connecting all the dots of my past that played a role in those behaviors.”

Are you in a treatment program?

Brian Musomba: “I do not believe that the creation and viewing of CP for pleasure constitutes a mental illness. Therefore I am not in any way considering enrolling for any ‘sex offender’ treatment.”

Jesse Ward: “The answer is no. The way the prison system itself is set up doesn’t allow for people to really seek help until your last few years of incarceration and then they have no clue on how to help. The general mindset of even the basic treatment books they offer here are based on ‘hands on’ offenses and don’t touch computer based offenses.”

Russell Guillory: “They have classes that are offered but there really is no incentive to take them. All the classes and programs look good on their face, but fail to identify the guys trying to better themselves from those faking it. Rehabilitation is a personal choice.”

What are your thoughts on sex offender registration requirements or your sentence?

William: “Sex Offender Registration Notification Act is no good, it has absolutly no affect what so ever on recidivism, it does how ever work remarkably well on destroying a person’s life in all aspects. I mean, you lose most if not all the friends you had, you lose your job in most cases, then you lose your house due to either loss of employment and or living restrictions.”

Russell Guillory: “The most irrational part of the sentencing based on the laws is that the sentences for ‘non-contact offenses’ are more than not longer than the sentences of the contact offense they say a person will do. No other offense is based on the thought that watching a crime is sentenced harder than the actual crime.”

Jay Glenewinkel, convicted of receiving child pornography, serving a 17.5-year sentence at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana: “Yes, I am a sex offender, someone who is paying for the mistakes that I have made in my past. But does my mistake make me any less of a human being? Did we, as sex offenders, do so wrong that we deserve to be placed in public shame for the rest of our lives, as Hitler tried to do with the Jews in the 1930s and 40s? Do you feel it is acceptable to jeapordize the safety and well being of my entire family, including my own children. Is it alright for my children to endure the bullying and humiliation for most of their childhood because one of their parents’ looked at a few images on the computer that they weren’t supposed to? We all make bad decisions, but there comes a time when we must all stand and say that enough is enough.”

What would you like the public to know?

Letter not signed, from an inmate at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas: “The female minor was 16 years old at the time. On Facebook this female had her age set at 18. I ‘requested sex’ on several occasions. I received a mandatory minimum of 15 years for this. I had no priors, two degrees, was attending grad school, had a new home and three jobs. There was such a massive net casted and it caught me in it.”

Letter not signed, from the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas: “I signed up for their singles club. A few days later I had an email from a girl whos profile said she was 19. I turned 30. A couple of days later she told me she had a secret. She told me she had lied about her age and that she was 16. How is it fair for someone to be locked up for believing someone was 19 when she lied about her age, not to mention rules for the dating part of the sight was supposed to be for 18 and up only.”

Jay Glenewinkel: “The term ‘sex offender’ is thrown around so casually these days that it has become difficult to understand its true definition. It seems that most people believe it means a rapist, a child molestor or a sexually violent predator. While it is a fact that there are people who are indeed violent, sexual predators, a vast majority of those people who are labeled as sex offenders are not among those crazy monsters you sometimes learn about from the news. Try to offer a little compassion. How would you feel if you discovered that it was your own mother or father, brother or sister or significant other was a sex offender? Would you then try to look at things from a whole new perspective?”