Jerry Sandusky Sentenced to 30-60 Years in Prison, Still Won't Admit He's a Child Rapist

A Pennsylvania judge sentenced former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky to 30 to 60 years in jail today, meaning the 68-year-old will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in prison. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse, including corruption of minors to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. But he still claims he’s innocent — and said a “young man who was dramatic” started a vast conspiracy theory in hopes of attracting attention and ruining his life. Give it up.

“They could take away my life, they could make me out as a monster, they could treat me as a monster, but they can’t take away my heart,” Sandusky said in a statement before the sentencing. “In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged disgusting acts.”

Multiple alleged victims of his disagreed. “The sentence will never erase what he did to me. It will never make me whole,” one victim said during his sentencing. And, thankfully, so did the jury — Sandusky will head off to prison this week. The AP wants to know: will he be raped in prison? And will anyone care?

Sandusky is supposed to be incarcerated along with nonviolent offenders, but as the nation’s most notorious convicted child rapist — and an unapologetic one at that — it’s safe to say he probably won’t be treated that fantastically, especially given that government statistics show sex offenders are two to four times more likely to be raped in prison. Judging from the cringe-inducingly gleeful Facebook and Twitter statuses that popped up after Sandusky was first publicly accused — “Don’t drop the soap! Lolz” — the public won’t be too upset if he becomes a statistic as well.

“The Sandusky case is one of those moments when our core beliefs are really tested,” Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International, told the AP. “This is a moment when it’s especially crucial to recognize that nobody ever deserves to be raped. No matter who you are, sexual violence and rape is wrong, it’s a crime, and it is something we have to fight.”

Another convicted sex offender said Sandusky probably won’t be raped, but he will be insulted:

“Are people going to bother him? Yeah, but a lot of it’s going to be verbal harassment – it’s not going to be physical,” said the 52-year-old man from the Philadelphia suburbs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the stigma attached to sex offenses. “Because again, he’s an old guy; people aren’t into that. The verbal abuse is probably going to be significant. He’s going to have to have a thick skin.”

No one deserves to be raped. But it’s hard to care all that much about the emotional well-being of a convicted child rapist — especially one who refuses to admit that he did anything wrong.

Jerry Sandusky gets sentence of 30 to 60 years for child sex abuse [CNN]
Convicted pedophile coach could be raped in prison [AP]