# If Michael Jackson is found guilty, where would they put him? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082 "2005-03-05T14:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/21 "2005-03-06T19:34:32Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > former judges, cops, prison guards, and elected officials tend to be targets for “rough justice” in prison. So they may get sent to Special Management Units along with the flamboyant homosexuals, effeminate men, and high profile cases like serial cannibals, etc. Didn’t Jeffery Dahmer get murdered in prison? ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/22 "2005-03-06T22:02:22Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Didn’t Jeffery Dahmer get murdered in prison? Shanked in the shower IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/23 "2005-03-06T22:10:50Z")
> [@](#): > > He would be so high profile that prisoners would want to mess with him just to say that they did. I’m sure his Nation of Islam bodyguards will arrange some custodial watch while he’s in the slammer… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/24 "2005-03-06T22:48:59Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Didn’t Jeffery Dahmer get murdered in prison? Yes, he did. And he wasn’t “shanked in the shower” - he was beaten to death with a mop handle (no, _not_ sodomized, simply whacked over the head, shoulders, and back) by a mentally disturbed, homophobic black prisoner who didn’t like white people in general, much less white homosexual cannibals with a taste for dark meat, while the two of them were both assigned to clean the toilets. Dahmer had originally been kept in solitary confinement for his own protection, but after a couple years had asked to be allowed time on work duty and with other people because, basically, he was lonely and didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. He most certainly was aware of the risk of assault he ran by doing so. There were rumors that Dahmer was delibrately paired up with that particular inmate in the hopes he would be elminated. ---
**Author:** ![outside\_artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@outside\_artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outside_artist)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/25 "2005-03-06T23:32:40Z")
I don’t see how Jacko could have molested anyone. He has so little testosterone in his body I doubt that he could even get it up. He’s just weird, and, I believe, innocent of strong-arming anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/26 "2005-03-07T00:05:57Z")
> [@Not a Well Woman](#): > > I don’t see how Jacko could have molested anyone. He has so little testosterone in his body I doubt that he could even get it up. He’s just weird, and, I believe, innocent of strong-arming anyone. He had enough testosterone to father kids. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![outside\_artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@outside\_artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outside_artist)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/27 "2005-03-07T00:26:53Z")
Yeah, but that was a few years ago. It seems that he has been using hormones and hormone blockers on a regular basis, and they take a while to kick in. Every time I see this guy, he looks more and more like a woman. He looks like La Toya ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/28 "2005-03-07T01:01:59Z")
> [@Not a Well Woman](#): > > I don’t see how Jacko could have molested anyone. He has so little testosterone in his body I doubt that he could even get it up. He’s just weird, and, I believe, innocent of strong-arming anyone. How much testosterone, his ability to “get it up”, and whether he “strong-arm[ed]” anyone isn’t germane (heh) to whether he molested the children in question, as sexual assault constitutes more than standard genital-genital or genital-anal penetration. Weird doesn’t begin to cover his behavior (“Poor people are crazy, Jack. I’m eccentric!”), but many of the statements he’s made are classic child-molseter evasions. Twelve unlucky slobs will be the ones to decide if there is sufficient evidence of guilt, but the information in the public view certainly doesn’t boister any position of innocence. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/29 "2005-03-07T02:09:07Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Weird doesn’t begin to cover his behavior (“Poor people are crazy, Jack. I’m eccentric!”), but many of the statements he’s made are classic child-molseter evasions. Twelve unlucky slobs will be the ones to decide if there is sufficient evidence of guilt, but the information in the public view certainly doesn’t boister any position of innocence. > > Stranger I assume you’re referring to his classic, “I would never **hurt** a child,” when asked about sleeping in the same bed with little boys? That set my alarm off. Instead of saying, “I would never do that, I would never abuse or molest a child.” Pedophiles don’t see themselves as “hurting” children. **Not a Well Woman** , I used to feel the same way, until I read [this](http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/pedophiles/7.html?sect=19). ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/30 "2005-03-07T03:18:32Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I assume you’re referring to his classic, “I would never **hurt** a child,” when asked about sleeping in the same bed with little boys? That set my alarm off. Instead of saying, “I would never do that, I would never abuse or molest a child.” Pedophiles don’t see themselves as “hurting” children. Of course, it is possible that he sleeps in the same bed with little boys _without_ hurting, abusing, or molesting them. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/31 "2005-03-07T04:02:48Z")
Do you really believe that? ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/32 "2005-03-07T04:34:36Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Do you really believe that? Well, it’d be creepy and bizarre, but that’s Michael Jackson for you. I believe it’s a possibility–if anyone would do it, it’d be a Peter Pan type like him–and I won’t condemn him as a child molestor without evidence that he actually molested anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/33 "2005-03-07T05:04:01Z")
[smokinggun.com](http://smokinggun.com) has the deposition of the first kid who claimed that MJ molested him. I read a couple of paragraphs of it and had to quit because it was too damned creepy. If that kid was being coached, whomever was doing it was as sick as MJs thought to be. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/34 "2005-03-07T08:38:08Z")
> [@Mr2001](#): > > Well, it’d be creepy and bizarre, but that’s Michael Jackson for you. I believe it’s a possibility–if anyone would do it, it’d be a Peter Pan type like him–and I won’t condemn him as a child molestor without evidence that he actually molested anyone. Well, this is getting off the topic of the OP, but whatthehell: Even if _he_ wasn’t actually molesting them, inviting non-relative children into his bed is beyond merely irresponsible. It sets the precident for the boys that having a strange man invite them into bed is an acceptible behavior, setting the stage for future molesters. His explainations of it (“How can I help it if children love me and want to sleep in my bed?”) are typical, textbook responses. The whole deal smells as fishy as a seafood restaurant in an East Coast power blackout. Look, I’m all about live and let live as far as sexual relations between two (or more) consenting adults goes, and if we were talking about, say, 17 year olds it would be, well, creepy but of questionable criminality, as a 17 year old should have some ability to form consent (even if the law says otherwise). But 11 and 12 year olds? No bloody way is inviting someone of that age into bed anywhere close to legitimate, even if no sexual contact has taken place. As for where he will (or should) go, I imagine his status plus his mannerisms will, as **Qadgop the Mercotan** notes, permit him to remain in solitary confinement or in a special facility for his own safety, as is appropriate. All jokes about whose “bitch” he would be aside, he clearly isn’t capable of living in the general prison population and frankly, probably isn’t capable of living the normal sort of life that the everyday person enjoys. Not to excuse his crimes (if they be so) but he’s really a pretty sad example of what early success can do to someone who is unprepared for it. The damned shame about how we deal with paedophiles is that they typically do not recieve the kind of counseling or treatment that would enable them to restrain their impulses. (Of course, this would first require them to genuinely elocute to their crime, something most paedophiles will not do.) When released, if they survive, they are just as great a menace as they were when they were originally interred, leading to the extremely high recidivation among molesters. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/35 "2005-03-07T13:43:41Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Even if _he_ wasn’t actually molesting them, inviting non-relative children into his bed is beyond merely irresponsible. It sets the precident for the boys that having a strange man invite them into bed is an acceptible behavior, setting the stage for future molesters. That, alone, is not a crime. > [@](#): > > But 11 and 12 year olds? No bloody way is inviting someone of that age into bed anywhere close to legitimate, even if no sexual contact has taken place. Again, it’s creepy and bizarre, but if there was no sexual contact, there’s no reason to put anyone in jail. > [@](#): > > When released, if they survive, they are just as great a menace as they were when they were originally interred, leading to the extremely high recidivation among molesters. Contrary to popular belief, this is a [myth](http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html). Recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than average for all criminals, and recidivism rates for child molesters are lower still. According to the Center for Sex Offender Management, a division of the Department of Justice: > [@](#): > > Myth: > “Most sex offenders reoffend.” > > Fact: > Reconviction data suggest that this is not the case. Further, reoffense rates vary among different types of sex offenders and are related to specific characteristics of the offender and the offense. > > […] child molesters had a 13% reconviction rate for sexual offenses and a 37% reconviction rate for new, non-sex offenses over a five year period; […] > > It is noteworthy that recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than for the general criminal population. For example, one study of 108,580 non-sex criminals released from prisons in 11 states in 1983 found that nearly 63% were rearrested for a non-sexual felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of their release from incarceration; 47% were reconvicted; and 41% were ultimately returned to prison or jail (Bureau of Justice Statistics). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/36 "2005-03-07T15:39:08Z")
(Sorry for the hijack, but I can’t let this pass unchallenged.) > [@Mr2001](#): > > Contrary to popular belief, [high recidivism] is a [myth](http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html). Recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than average for all criminals, and recidivism rates for child molesters are lower still. That’s some fancy selective quoting you’ve done there, **Mr2001**. Apparently you missed this part from your linked source (regarding the unreliability of reconviction data as a measure of recidivism): > [@](#): > > It is important to note that not all sex crimes are solved or result in arrest and **only a fraction of sex offenses are reported to police**. The reliance on measures of recidivism as reflected through official criminal justice system data (i.e., rearrest or reconviction rates) obviously omits offenses that are not cleared through an arrest (and thereby cannot be attributed to any individual offender) or those that are never reported to the police. For a variety of reasons, many victims of sexual assault are reluctant to invoke the criminal justice process and do not report their victimization to the police. For these reasons, **relying on rearrest and reconviction data underestimates actual reoffense numbers**. Moreover, according to [this site](http://www2.gwu.edu/~ccps/etzioni/B388.html), studies showing low recidivism rates are further flawed by their overbroad definition of “sex offender”: > [@](#): > > Pedophilia is not a normal sex drive but an obsession, a strong impulse difficult to control. It has been compared with alcoholism, and characterized as “a chronic, progressive condition that can never really be cured.” > > The fact that pedophiles are rarely cured is reflected in the fact that even if jailed and treated, they continue to act out their impulse. When I studied the matter, I first ran into a puzzle: Studies of recidivism (rearrest or reconviction) of sex offenders show very different results. > > Some find that more than half of those released from treatment centers have been convicted again (56 percent, according to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Post Audit Bureau); others find that this is true only for less than 5 percent of those who completed their treatment. > > **A closer examination showed that the studies that came out with low rates of recidivism included in their definition of sex offenders teenagers who engaged in premarital sex in public spaces and other such acts that are legally an offense in some jurisdictions, but offer no indication of compulsion.** > > …The puzzle was solved when I came across reoffense data, which sounds similar to rearrest data but is not. Reoffense figures concern how often the same criminal act has been repeated by the same person - whether or not they have been caught. > > We know that on average, pedophiles commit 13 abuses before they are caught. We know this because once they are arrested, they admit to the other offenses or other victims come forward. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/37 "2005-03-07T15:55:35Z")
You _could_ justify a minimum security prison, on the grounds that everyone in the country can recognise him at 500 paces, so he wouldn’t stand a good chance of running and hiding… ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/38 "2005-03-07T16:30:31Z")
I’m under the impression that only white-collar criminals or first time non-violent criminals go to minimum security prisons. Violent criminals do not have the option; for example, Mike Tyson served his time in a medium security prison, Indiana Youth Center, (not a juvenile facility, despite the name). Does anyone else picture Michael and a flunkie climbing a fence while the flunkie holds an umbrella over Michael? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/39 "2005-03-07T17:02:58Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > I’m all about live and let live as far as sexual relations between two (or more) consenting adults goes, and if we were talking about, say, 17 year olds it would be, well, creepy but of questionable criminality, as a 17 year old should have some ability to form consent (even if the law says otherwise). Actually, the age of consent in the majority of U.S. states is 16. ---
**Author:** ![outside\_artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@outside\_artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outside_artist)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082/40 "2005-03-07T17:19:15Z")
I am far from naive when I hear about molesters and their tactics, etc., but Michael lives in his own little world, and when he says that he takes “chi’dren” into his bed because it is a beautiful thing to share your bed with someone he may very well be doing just that. To him, this is a perfectly normal thing to do, and because he is so apart from society and life in general, he is too out of it to realize just how ridiculous and suspect such a statement is. I am not defending him because there is of course a very real possibility that he is guilty 0of all of this stuff, but we need to take into consideration the fact that this guy is so reclusive and out of touch that he is unaware of the context in which he says these outlandish things. It is almost as if he is trying to re-live his own childhood (which is hard to understand because supposedly his father was a real tyrant) and, in order to do that, he needs to surround himself with young people. Doing this is, in itself a form of abuse though. If he is so screwy that he has to use a child to work out some inner conflict, it still creates a false environment and a false impression for a child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-michael-jackson-is-found-guilty-where-would-they-put-him/293082.md?page=3)