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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Should everyone be allowed to slip into prison?

Angry reporters outside the gates peppered Oxford prison spokeswoman Christine Montonna with questions yesterday afternoon demanding to know why prison  officials had allowed former Illinois Governor George Ryan to enter through a back gate, away from the prying eyes of cameras:

"We felt it was a security step that we had to take," Montonna said, and then, when reporters demanded to know what possible security threat their motley band posed, Montonna offered several lame and evasive variations on the same idea.

Truth is that there was no security threat, only a circus threat. The camera operators wanted to capture images of Ryan walking into prison for its value as spectacle; prison officials wanted to avoid that.

It was very reminiscent of the special exit from the federal courthouse   that officials afforded Ryan and his family after Ryan's conviction in 2006. Then, he exited through an underground parking garage and was all but unphotographed when he sped away.

I had no problem with that then as I have no problem with what happened Wednesday at Oxford. I believe people should be allowed to enter and leave courthouses and prisons  without running a gauntlet of cameras and microphones, if they wish.

The major purpose and effect of such images is to show people in a bad light, which is why so many of the angry questions at Montonna either charged or insinuated that Ryan had received a special favor.

He did, clearly. But it should be a right for all, not just the big shots.


Who should be allowed to walk in and out of prisons and courthouses away from the prying eyes of the news cameras?

No one -- 35%
Everyone ---55%
The rich, famous and powerful only--10%

127 responses



Sorry, EZ, but we disagree.

The circus that was the George Ryan trial was paid for by the taxpayers, and they deserved to see Guilty George waddle into prison via the "perp walk."

Just another instance of reinforcing Ryan's concept that he is better than the rest of us. That is what got him into trouble in the first place.

BTW, it made me sick to hear ultra-lib "movie actor" Mike Farrell tell us Ryan is so broke, he had to drop his insurance to keep his wife's in force. Oh, please, pass the Kleenix.

That was an obvious attempt to curry last-minute sympathy for Gov. Crook on his front lawn with his kids' luxury vehicles in the driveway and after years of peeling bills off wads of cash big enough to choke a horse. After being on the pad for years, his kids couldn't chip in and pay the old man's premium? Or would that stymie another attempt to turn Ryan into a martyr?

Reminds me too much of the weepy Steve Skvara saga, and I don't feel like going there again.

In principle I agree, but isn't it only big shots who have a gauntlet to run? What's the point of insisting that this privilege be extended even to those who no one would be pointing a camera at anyway?

When are the local photographers going to learn this & cover all the entrances & exits.
Or is there a tacit agreement not to do this & embarrass them?
The National Enquirer would fire its people if they didn't do this with the halfwits they cover!

I dare you to post a poll asking if people would like to see Rod Blagojevich and Todd Stroger behind bars. I would be curious to see the results.

"The major purpose and effect of such images is to show people in a bad light..."

People who don't want to be shown "in a bad light" might want to avoid selling themselves like whores while holding public office.

Conversely, having the press document someone's entry into prison serves, in theory at least, the same purpose as opening trials to the press: to monitor the government's conduct.

It's a bit creepy to have people whisked in and out without people seeing them. Moreover, some people might appreciate having a record showing, for example, that they didn't have all those stabs wounds before they got to prison.

With gas prices over $3/gallon, the better question would be why there were so many news crews with their cameramen and trucks camping out in the middle of rural Wisconsin in the first place. It must have been a really slow news day for grownups earning more than minimum wage to act like they are Bill Murray waiting for the arrival of Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog’s Day. One wonders what their news editors were hoping for. The club fed at Oxford is a minimum security facility for ex-politicos and white collar criminals like Ryan. It looks more like a nursing home than a prison because it basically is a nursing home, except the food is better and the staff is better trained and better paid. No iron gates slamming dramatically for the cameras. No guard towers with machine guns trained on the exercise yard. No fences topped with concertina wire to be panned by the “live action cam”. All those talking heads adjusting their make-up in anticipation for the big moment of George Ryan’s arrival. Maybe they thought that the 73 year-old Ryan would pull an O.J. Simpson type stunt and try to escape in Jim Thompson’s SUV. I can just see those two old geezers in a high speed chase on two lane rural roads as the live news helicopters capture it all on film for the Five o’clock news.

George Ryan certainly wasn’t as sexy as Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears coming out of a courthouse. Nor did George Ryan conveniently die of a heart attack like Bush’s buddy Ken Lay. Having wasted all that time and gas money driving up to that middle of nowhere called Oxford, Wisconsin those paparazzi news people should hang around for a few more days. Maybe they can get a tele-photo shot of Governor Ryan doing “hard prison labor” like shelving library books in the prison library. That kind of photo will let their audiences back in Illinois know that the millions of taxpayer dollars that US Attorney Patrick Collins spent investigating and prosecuting Governor Ryan was money well spent. It certainly was for former US Attorney Patrick Collins - he's making big bucks now defending pedophile priests for the Catholic church.

Uh, Elizabeth, you're related to George Ryan how... through marriage?

I have no problem seeing my tax dollars spent by Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuting no-remorse thieves like George Ryan. You're not offended by all the tax dollars he shoveled in the direction of his friends when the state was for sale? Perhaps you benefitted?

A very real part of being convicted of a felony is to endure public shame/scorn/ridicule. Our society has endured a significant decline in the acceptance of shame. There is an overwhelming movement to "not judge" anyone. This is part and parcel of the PC mentality that serves to cloud our culture's common sense/right and wrong values.

In Ryan's case, I say it is of particular importance to have video/pictoral accounts of a man who betrayed the public trust. It would serve as a reminder to us all that our system of justice does go after the fat cats and as a caution to the fat cats who may otherwise be tempted.

Also, as a general proposition, do we not all want the greatest degree of transparency possible from our government? Aren't you, Eric, typically quick to demand more openness of our government, absent some really good reason(s)?

A felon, by definition, abrogates personal freedoms that our citizenry enjoy. I see no good reason that justifies the exclusion of anyone who would wish to document his incarceration.

ZORN REPLY -- A mark of civilization is a dignified administration of justice, top to bottom. Our courtrooms are not spectacles and circuses. Arrested people aren't hauled through crowds to accept abuse. Convicts aren't put in the tumbrel and paraded through town.
I think cameras belong in our courtrooms where the public's business is taking place and NOT in the hallways outside of courtrooms. We have it exactly backwards now in Illinois.

Of course I want to see Toddler & Blago go to prison.
Better yet, send them both to the gibbet!
I'll even let S. Sherman drive the tumbrel cart to the front gate through the jeering crowd!

So was the point of the third choice in the poll to show that 11% of your poll respondents don't take your polls seriously?

Better yet, send them both to the gibbet!

Posted by: Garry | Nov 9, 2007 8:35:37 AM
Now yer talkin'!

How about selling tickets and pay-per-view and using the revenue to offset the budget deficits, rather than those bloated proposed tax increases?

Who cares? He's still in prison, and got no benefit out of walking in there through a different door.

He's in, he's been humiliated, and his wife is suffering. And while he deserved what he got, I think we are piling on at this point. That a camera crew was deprived of what is truly an unnewsworthy film clip, after the long car ride, provides a certain symmetry that I can ernjoy.

I don't understand some of these comments, just as I don't understand one columnist who said that Ryan has suffered enough, has undergone public humiliation and should not be imprisoned during his old age. So does this mean that guilty young people shouldn't be imprisoned because they won't be able to bring their iPods? Guilty parents shouldn't be imprisoned because they'll miss the PTA meetings? What's the point of convicting a person if they don't serve the time they've earned? He would have been younger if he started serving his time right after he was convicted. Here is an even more novel idea. He wouldn't be serving time at all if he hadn't stolen from us and abused our trust. So who is to blame? Us or him?

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