Why Are Child Molesters Targeted and Hated in Prison?

Child sex offenders sit at the absolute bottom of the prison social hierarchy and have for as long as anyone who has done time can remember. The term used inside is cho-mo and it is not a neutral label. Inmates convicted of offenses against children are considered to have violated something so fundamental that the normal codes of conduct that govern conflict inside do not apply to them the way they do to everyone else.

The reason this particular offense generates more hostility than rape or even murder is not entirely rational or consistent and even people who have spent years inside struggle to articulate it precisely. Part of it is that children are seen as completely defenseless and the predatory nature of the offense against someone who cannot protect themselves triggers something visceral in people who have themselves often experienced powerlessness. Many inmates come from backgrounds of abuse and trauma and that history shapes the intensity of the response.

Informants, known as snitches, sit alongside cho-mos at the bottom of that hierarchy for different reasons. Cooperating with law enforcement is treated as a betrayal of the code that governs how disputes and information are handled inside and the consequences for being identified as an informant are serious and sometimes violent.

The federal Bureau of Prisons recognized this dynamic decades ago and established a network of Sex Offender Management Program facilities that house sex offenders separately from the general population. The ten federal SOMP prisons currently operating are FMC Carswell in Fort Worth Texas, FMC Devens in Ayers Massachusetts, FCI Elkton in Ohio, FCI Englewood in Littleton Colorado, FCI Seagoville in Texas, FCI Marianna in Florida, USP Marion in Illinois, FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia, FCI Tucson in Arizona, and USP Tucson in Arizona. These facilities range across security levels from administrative to high security and are designed to manage this population safely and separately.

State systems have developed similar solutions at varying levels of consistency. Protective custody units at individual facilities serve the same purpose where dedicated SOMP style facilities do not exist.