Prisons have their own form of justice. For those of us not familiar with prison life, we generally think that a building full of criminals must be chaotic, and filled with random violence. It’s far more complicated than that. Inmates have their own code of justice, which can largely be dependent on the state that you are in. This code has a kind of hierarchy of bad, meaning that there are some crimes that are considered “good” (like robbing a bank), and others considered evil (like raping or killing a child). Prisoners will often dispense their own form of punishment, which tends to be deadly.

Now, for the sake of clarity, I must also specify that there is a difference between prison and jail. Prison is where people convicted of a crime go. Jail is the holdover for people suspected of a crime. This is why those in jail still have the presumption of innocence. With that in mind, when former pastor Rene Tigueros Hernandez was booked recently in San Jose over allegations that he killed his 3 year old granddaughter following a botched exorcism, it didn’t take long for one of his neighbors to find out what he had done, and a bunch of them decided to do something about it. Hernandez is 60 years old, so odds are, he didn’t put up much of a fight.

The thing is, the details of the incident are what’s putting his life in danger.

On Monday, a coroner testified that 3-year-old Arely had so many injuries — including blunt force trauma on her face and internal abdominal injuries — that it was impossible to know which injury was “the final blow.” The coroner said she determined Arely’s cause of death was a combination of mechanical asphyxia and smothering

The defense attorney requested that the judge bar the media from publishing or airing “up-to-date-in-court images and video” that make it “easier for hostile inmates in jail to identify and attack him,” Fite wrote.

The thing is, all of this is merely to keep him alive before he can actually go to trial. Once he’s actually in prison, then he’s in big trouble. Prisoners have a way of finding things out about you. Usually this is done on the first day with what is called a “heart check”. A scary looking man approaches you, demands to know for what crimes you are there for, and will often instigate a fight to see if you have any “heart”, and will defend yourself even against a tougher opponent. The worst thing you can be is a child rapist or murderer. These people typically have short stays, followed by a quick trip to the morgue.

Given the extend of the little girl’s injuries, I can’t imagine that his fellow prisoners will give him much leeway. Keep in mind that many of these men are fathers first, and criminals second. No doubt the time away from their loved ones only amplifies their hatred for these types of crimes. Their distorted sense of justice will inevitably lead to more death, perhaps as a way for them to try and atone for their crimes. Such is the primitive nature of prisons. They have their own laws, and codes of justice, and this spells bad news for the Hernandez family.

You see, Hernandez isn’t the only one of the family that was in jail, and the other  members have all said that they’ve been threatened multiple times. Considering the brutality and severity of their victims injuries, I have a feeling that prison life is going to be extremely difficult for them.

All of this tragedy was the result of the fact that Catholics still believe in dangerously stupid shit like demon possession. They think that behavioral problems are the result of satanic forces, and so strong is this belief that the welfare of their own child was less important that their superstitions.