Dangerous Convictions for PDF - ADL

50
Dangerous
Convictions:
AN INTRODUCTION TO EXTREMIST ACTIVITIES IN PRISONS
adherents in prison. Most prominent of these movements has been the radical
end of the anti-abortion movement, which has come to the aid of prisoners
who committed crimes in the cause of halting abortions. Through the
“Army of God” Web site, the Virginia-based minister Donald Spitz hosts
“authorized” pages for Paul Hill and Shelley Shannon. (Hill was convicted of
murdering Dr. John Britton and escort James Barrett in June 1994, while
Shannon is serving an 11-year sentence for shooting Dr. George Tiller in
Kansas in 1993.) Spitz also provides e-mail addresses for Hill, Shannon, and
others (since inmates do not have access to e-mail, Spitz presumably acts as a
courier). At another anti-abortion Web site, “StreetPreach,” run by Drew
Hiss from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, visitors are provided with addresses for
James Kopp and Dennis Malvasi and encouraged to send “letters of praise and
encouragement.” Kopp has been charged with the October 1998 murder of
Dr. Barnett Slepian, while Dennis Malvasi, a twice-convicted clinic bomber,
and his wife, Loretta Marra, have been charged with helping Kopp remain a
fugitive and with hiding Marra from grand jury proceedings. Supporters are
also provided with addresses through which they can send financial donations
for Kopp, Malvasi, Marra, and for general prisoner needs.
CONCLUSION
Many Americans would prefer not to think about prisons. They are uncomfortable
places filled with unpleasant people isolated, for a time, from the rest
of society. Yet contrary to conventional wisdom, Americans are less isolated
from prisoners than we would like to think. Many ideologically motivated
prisoners have demonstrated a considerable ability to transcend the bars and
walls of prison in order to reach out to followers in the free world. Putting
criminals in jail does not make us immune to their effects. Moreover, there
are a number of groups in the free world that do, in fact, think about prisons—as
avenues for propaganda and as recruiting centers. Extremists,
whether subscribing to their beliefs prior to incarceration or converting once
inside, are neither as isolated nor as inactive as we would perhaps prefer to
think.