Whipped Cream Difficulties

Once upon a time, there was a man named Peter “Pistol Pete” Rollock. Mr. Rollock led a narcotics gang called “Sex, Money, and Murder” in the Bronx.

Eventually, federal prosecutors were able to hang seven murders on Mr. Rollock. Some of those murders were allegedly ordered while Mr. Rollock was in jail on other charges.

In 2000, Mr. Rollock agreed to a plea deal, apparently in an effort to avoid the death penalty. Mr. Rollock agreed to a life sentence. Mr. Rollock also agreed to another condition imposed by the Feds: he would be “……placed in solitary confinement and barred from communicating with virtually all outsiders. ”

In cases where the attorney general finds that allowing a prisoner to communicate with others could result in “death or serious bodily injury,” the Bureau of Prisons imposes special administrative measures, or S.A.M.’s, limiting access to mail, calls and visitors, but at least leaving open the possibility of an inmate’s “stepping down,” that is someday earning an easing of restrictions. But in Mr. Rollock’s case, restrictions were imposed as part of the sentence itself, and he claims he was told he would never be allowed into the “step-down” program.

Mr. Rollock was sent to the federal Administrative Maximum prison in Florence, Colorado (also known as the “SuperMax”) in 2000, where he joined such notables as Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, Theodore Kaczynski, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He has been in solitary confinement ever since. But now he’s trying to get out of solitary.

Mr. Rollock, after arriving at the Supermax in December 2000, threw himself into education, beginning his path toward redemption, his lawyers say. By the end of 2002, he had taken closed-circuit television courses in philosophy, political theory and economics, and he had earned his G.E.D., records show.

He’s also written a children’s book. (Of course, so did Tookie Williams.)

I’m not sure how I feel about this. If we don’t provide some motivation for prisoners to reform, we’re going to get people who have nothing to lose. (And according to the NYT, the prosecution has agreed to allow Mr. Rollock’s status to be determined by SAMs; Mr. Rollock feels that even with this concession, it will still take him “years” to get out of solitary.)

On the other hand, his “solitary confinement” doesn’t sound so awful, especially when compared to Thomas Silverstein.

Also:

A current prosecutor, Margaret M. Garnett, said last year in court that Mr. Rollock and his family had been discussing a business called Team Rollock, which would “monetize and capitalize” on his reputation on the street. She even cited talk of Team Rollock T-shirts, with a rifle sight as the “primary design element.”

I know the lawyers have to be paid, folks, but I’m not sure that’s smart at all.