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Texas prisoner accused of killing 22 older women is slain by cellmate while serving life sentence (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/news

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Texas prisoner accused of killing 22 older women over two years, preying on them so he could steal jewelry and other valuables, was slain Tuesday by his cellmate while serving a life sentence, prison officials said.

Billy Chemirmir, 50, who was convicted last year in the slayings of two women, was found dead in his cell at a prison in rural East Texas, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney said. He was killed by his cellmate who was also serving a prison sentence for murder, according to Haney.

Chemirmir’s death comes about two weeks after Texas’ 100 prisons were placed on a rare statewide lockdown because of a rise in the number of killings inside the facilities, which prisons officials have said were related to drugs.

Haney did not release the name of the cellmate, how Chemirmir was killed or what may have led to the slaying.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Chemirmir’s death comes about two weeks after Texas’ 100 prisons were placed on a rare statewide lockdown because of a rise in the number of killings inside the facilities, which prisons officials have said were related to drugs.

So prisons can't maintain the one thing they are there for: security. The prisons or the government funding them are allowing this to happen. They are complicit in homicide. Society judged this man and sentenced him to life, not to execution. Being lax in duty resulting is death is negligent homicide.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

I love how they blame drugs when Texas prisons have been hitting record-breaking temperatures. Enough so to cause deaths. But yeah, drugs are the problem..

Aside from that, this guy probably fucked with the wrong one. Someone probably wanted this asshole gone.

[–] Rakonat 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Given the culture that surrounds prisoners, this isn't surprising at all.

The prisons themselves are just for profit with zero interest in rehabilitation or otherwise turning those in their custody into productive members of society. Yes, there are programs to teach skills or education to prisoners available, but in almost all cases these are either operated by outside organizations and thus don't cost the prison any money, or completing the program lets the prison take advantage of any certification or qualification earned, generating more revenue for the prison.

Prisons intentionally make people live in the lowest quality of life possible by law, and would reduce the conditions further to save money were there not laws to prevent that. They justify this because prisoners are being punished, even when that mentality is proven wrong time and time again, specifically in how wealthy or influential prisoners are allowed to make improvements to their own personal living conditions, rather than having to live like the general (poorer) population of the system.

Don't ever fool yourself into thinking US prisoners care one bit about a prisoner's security or safety, they would put all the prisoners into medicated comas and hang them up on meat racks if the law allowed it and it was cheaper than shoving them in cells. As long as they get paid for every day they hold a prisoner they don't care about any other aspect that doesn't cost them money to ignore. They only care about prisoners killing other prisoners because the state won't pay them to hold a dead body.

[–] Klinker 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As a non American, what is the concept of for profit prisons?

[–] Rakonat 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same thing as for profit healthcare.

Taking a service of a civilized society, gutting it od everything that gives it value and charging obsense amounts of money for it.

Privatized anything just ende up being some corporation making somethint worse for money

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 2 points 1 year ago

Even worst... For profit prison companies go to poor towns, and promise jobs. And you need prisoners to have security jobs.

So you have this feedback loop where police arrest people and the courts give them prison sentences because well, we got a nice fancy empty prison and the town needs those jobs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They exist to generate profit from suffering. That's it.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago

The lemmy circle jerk is real when it comes to law enforcement and capitalism hate.

The idea is that rather than the government running prisons at a loss, private companies run the prisons, and the jobs the prisoners do make a profit for the prison's owners. The imprisonment itself just constitutes an expense.

It kind of makes sense on paper ("well they broke the law why are we paying all this money to support their lives!??"), but it's a bad idea in practice as it creates the wrong incentives. You end up with entities that desire more people in prisons because that's how they grow their profit margins... and that obviously comes with some sketchy implications (e.g. lobbying for more non-violent offenders to get jail time, longer sentences, etc).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Given prisons in the US are pretty much a source of slave labour and the fact that a lot of these guards are on the take (hence drugs seemingly be freely available in practically any prison) this failure of duty seems more like business as usual.

[–] Coreidan 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So prisons can't maintain the one thing they are there for: security.

Oh ya? Says who? And security for who?

If you think prisons are here to keep prisoners safe you are 100% misinformed.

In America prisons are for-profit. Their only job is to make sure you stay there and don’t return to the public. Whether you stay safe or not isn’t a concern to them. They don’t give a fuck about your well being.

In America prisons are designed to be cruel, not to rehabilitate.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

While I understand the sentiment, it is patently false.

In America prisons are designed to be cruel, not to rehabilitate.

This is unconstitutional and illegal, besides. Therefore the governments and the victims are well within their rights to hold the prisons accountable and liable.

[–] Discoslugs 4 points 1 year ago

This is unconstitutional and illegal, besides.

Someone call the police!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Actually it's totally constitutional. Check your 14th amendment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Uh, Citation Needed.

Equal protection for protected classes in prison isn't relevant when the issue is prisons not properly protecting their inmates.

[–] GladiusB 1 points 1 year ago

Prove it. That's the issue. It's systemic and hard to prove that it's from the top down. Even if you can get some instances, then you need many forms of evidence. Which has a way of disappearing or waiting so long that witnesses die.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The only falsehood about their statement is the implication that all prisons are for-profit.

For example, Louisisna has state and privately owned prisons. Many, if not all, of Louisiana's private for-profit prisons are owned by members of law enforcement. This gives them incentive to fill the cells as much as possible. The rules for these prisons are much more lax than the state-run prisons. While the state prisons have libraries and vocational training, the Private prisons usually don't. At least that's my understanding from a few years back.

Louisiana is also not the only state with private prisons, however most, if not all states, have public prisons as well.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Well, that still counts as a life sentence.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Probably couldn't stop running his mouth. Most in cell fights/stabbings etc happen due to that kinda shit.

[–] ULTIMATE_FUCKTRUMPET 6 points 1 year ago

Wow.. now that's some fucked up shit.