Another Federal Crackdown -- Former Prison Nurse Sentenced For Having Sex With Inmate - Forbes
First, there are no conjugal visits in Federal Prison, and certainly there is no fraternization between staff and inmates…or at least there is not supposed to be. That was a line crossed by Lori Sue Helmick who was a nurse at a federal prison in Hazelton, WV. Helmick pled guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a ward for having a sexual encounter with an inmate under her care. Not sure of what ailment the inmate was being treated for but we can rule out a few. Federal judge Irene Keeley ordered Ms. Helmick to serve five months in prison and five months home confinement, followed by five years of supervised release. The punishment seems excessive when so many other crimes, like financial ones, go unpunished, or not pursued at all by the feds. I can also assure you that the inmate received some punishment, though none was noted, for conduct unbecoming an inmate (funny I know). He probably got some sort of solitary confinement where he could contemplate his behavior (I’ll let you fill in the contemplation part). In all, Ms. Helmick’s stay in federal prison will cost taxpayers about $20,000, plus thousands per year in her post-prison supervision (I’ll let you fill in whether you think this is a bargain).
The last thing that I wanted to think about in prison was anything that conjured up thoughts of romance, even if it were a visit to the infirmary. On movie nights, yes we had movie nights on Fridays, some junior ranked guard would have to go to Block Buster and pick up a DVD that would be streamed over the television network of the compound. The movies consisted of upbeat reflection flicks like “Shrek”, or one of the classics, “Cool Hand Luke”, always a crowd pleaser, or something with some good drama like “Pearl Harbor”. At the first sign of any romantic scene I got the feeling that someone needed to hit fast-forward as I would have done had one of my young children suddenly entered the room. With no remote control, most settled on taking a drink of soda or rustling a bag of chips to show disinterest.
There were those incarcerated who did not let the “No Conjugal Visit” get in their way. Those few would design some elaborate rendezvous with their significant-other in the nearby forest next to Jesup Federal Prison Camp in Jesup, GA. Those ventures, no matter how close to the prison, were considered an ESCAPE by the Bureau of Prisons.
On one particular weekend an overweight, middle-aged inmate slinked off with his wife toward the end of weekly visitation time. No sooner had he disappeared into the brush the guards sounded an alarm that something was amiss. After being ordered back to our dorm/cell, we all looked out the window to see our friend covered with scrapes and briars in a pair of handcuffs. The guards were kind enough to simply send his crying wife home. While we felt for the guy, he had ruined our limited visitation and, in the process, had provided us with a disturbing visual of what had come to define romance in our lives. He got 6 months in a confined cell and was then transferred to another facility.
I’m not sure whether the prosecution of nurse Lori Helmick was part of the Justice Department’s recently unveiled “Operations Broken Trust”?….but I hope not. There has to be a better way to use taxpayer money to fight crime.