BrokenOne:

As a woman who fell head over heels in love with a man who may never leave prison, I have to admitt(although I know that this will be an unpopular answer!) that I can empathize with the female correctional officer that you spoke of. And I have a great deal of compassion for her, although I can understand that her employer really had no other choice but to let her go.

If I worked at the facility that my boyfriend is housed in, I would no doubt give him special treatment, do favors for him, and even take advantage of whatever opportunities there were to share some intimate moments with him. I don't think that makes me a bad person. Just human! Sometimes, people think with their hearts and not their heads, and it can lead them to make bad choices, without really thinking through the potential consequences.

Unless you've been there, you have NO idea how hard it is to be seperated from the one you love. Not to talk about having to live with the knowledge that he lives in such a creul, unforgiving and dangerous environment, and is treated like dirt! And there ain't a damn thing that you can do about it! And yes. People do turn their noses at you. I say to hell with e'm! Who needs e'm! But sometimes it does get to me. It does hurt.

To be quite honest, if I THOUGHT for even a moment that I could get away with it, I would help him escape in a heartbeat! LOL But I know that it is unrealistic, and wouldn't be willing to jeopardize my freedom for something that I know would never last. EVENTUALLY(if not today, than tomorrow!) we would be caught and punished. And we would probably never be able to speak to/see one another again! It's just not worth it.

The happiness would be short lived. And we would ALWAYS have to be looking over our shoulders. We could never TRULY be free, or enjoy life to the fullest. And my baby loves me enough that he would NEVER ask me to do ANYTHING that would put me in harm's way or jeopardize my freedom. He never has. Not even ONCE!

If my boyfriend or one of my inmate friends were to escape on THIER OWN, would I help them? YUP! ESPECIALLY if it were a death row inmate! I would give him whatever cash I had, credit cards, car, whatever and tell him to RUN as fast and as far as he could! Again, only being honest. I would NOT turn him in, or assist the authorities in ANY WAY.

As for hurting or killing another human being, NO WAY! I know that under the right circumstances(like the one BrokenOne gave about protecting her children from an intruder) we are all capable of it, but I can ONLY see myself doing it if I were protecting myself or the life of someone that I love. I believe that ALL human life is precious, and I would not want ANY part in taking a life. I could NEVER live with myself. Even if I was never apprehended and punished, my conscience would never allow me ANY peace!

This whole topic of conversation reminds me of a story I heard about on a documentary about women who fall in love with inmates. I am sure that some of you may have heard about it? It happened in Arizona, and it ignited a firestorm of controversy over websites like WAP that put women on the "outside" in touch with men on the "inside".

A woman who tried to help her death row inmate husband escape, was shot and killed by a corrections officers(he looked so broken up about the whole thing. Yeah right!) in the process. HOWEVER, when her husband realized that the escape attempt was NOT going to be sucessful, he begged his wife to shoot him. And she shot him in the neck. He died soon thereafter. It was just heartbreaking(I bawled!).

And I also started thinking about whether it was something I could/would do and decided that I could NEVER kill the man that I love more than life itself. But I DO understand what was going through her head at the time. He would have suffered an agonizing, humiliating death at the hands of the "executioner". At least it was quick. Maybe she reasoned that she loved him enough, to want to end his pain and suffering. I don't know. But I really felt for her.

Even sadder still, while it appeared that her love for him was true, the same couldn't be said for him! He had been corresponding with other women, and telling him that he loved them and wanted to spend the rest of his life with them and so on and so forth. All the while leaving out the simple little fact that he was MARRIED! And he also took advantage of her love for him. At one point SHE asked HIM for help(she told him that she was really struggling, and didn't even have enough money for food) and even though he HAD quite a bit of money in HIS account, he refused. Gee, what a prince huh?

Anyway, I guess in short the answer is YES. I DO understand how it can happen, even to an intelligent, well-educated, self-assured woman. Hey, do you all remember the woman(Veronica Compton was her name) that tried to commit a "copy cat" murder, to prove her boyfriend serial killer Kenneth Bianci's(one of the "Boston Strangler's) "innocence"? She was not only very attractive, but also seemingly very intelligent and well-spoken. There are countless stories like these. The things we do for love huh? LOL

You know I can't help but ponder this point. WHY is it that we never hear stories about MEN falling in love with FEMALE inmates, and doing this sorta thing? Hmm!

Lisa