A new story, much like the old stories

This is just what I heard....

There's an STA-III down in Alton named Shinzetta. She has two sisters-in-law who also work on the Alton MHC plantation. Once upon a time, Shinzetta started to think one of the slaves at Alton was pretty, and she flirted with him. She also had a lot of domestic issues, and she told the slave about them. He was sympathetic, and he seemed quite bright and nice. Over some period of months, perhaps, the two of them began to talk and think seriously about getting an apartment together, once the slave was manumitted.

It always seems interesting to me that so many "mental health professionals" find themselves romantically or sexually attracted to involuntary mental patients. After all, one might think the "patients" are crazy and violent, right? That's why they're in custody, that's why they are forced to be "treated" in the mental "hospital". So it could easily be expected that they would be unattractive to normal people, right? 

Anyway, over the past twenty years or so I've seen various instances (starting with Rodney Yoder's wedding to the widow of the great blues musician John Lee Hooker, amazingly, during a lunch break in his commitment trial at the Chester Courthouse with a ton of media present to wish the newlywed couple well!), where women seem to want or seek out jailbird or psych slave partners. Shinzetta actually has a lot of company.

But the tragedy is, when Juliet and Romeo are respectively a member of the staff at a state facility and an involuntary "patient", it's a no-questions-asked felony. Anyone who knows about it but doesn't report it immediately also commits an offense, which will at least get them fired. Bye-bye pension, bye-bye benefits.

So the way this one went in Alton is as follows: Shinzetta the STA-III flirted with the slave and became romantically, sexually involved. One of her sisters-in-law noticed or somehow found out about it, and told her brother, Shinzetta's husband. Evidently Shinzetta talked her way out that, but only just barely. Later, Shinzetta was getting flirty with other slaves on the Alton plantation, and the first one, who was still hoping for a long-term relationship with her, became jealous. He commented to her one day that he might tip off her sister in law, if she didn't stop spreading herself around so much. That frightened Shinzetta. She quickly complained (falsely) to authorities that the slave had sexually harassed or assaulted her.

There was no investigation, Shinzetta's report was effective preemption. The slave was immediately, summarily sent to Chester. Being sent to Chester is kind of like being "sold down the river," or put in "the hole" - it's punishment, it takes you completely out of circulation. Slaves at Elgin or Alton or Chicago Read are very much afraid of being sent to Chester. But Shinzetta continued in her job, merrily accumulating pension credit time. I have no idea how her marriage is or whether she gets along with her husband's sisters these days, maybe that's all fine.

But Shinzetta, and the sisters-in-law Jane and Regina, and probably various other staff and administrators, sure are looking at problems down the road.