"A Town Without Pity" is the seventh episode of the first part of the fourth season and the thirty first overall episode of the HBO television series Oz.
Plot:[]
Narrations:[]
Some big high-roller once said: "The business of America is business". And I'm happy to report the criminal justice business is booming. With heavy industry headed south, small towns are battling for state contracts to build correctional facilities. Who'd have thunk it? Nice, upstanding citizens begging to have rapists, drug dealers and murderers right in their own backyard.
Prisoner number 96Z858, Eli Zabitz. Convictred April 1st, 1996. Aggravated assault. Sentence: 9 years. Up for parole in 6.
Seven out of ten inmates are from cities, but 90% of the prisons themselves are in rural areas. You know, farmland, hillsides, forests. Now, you'd think such bucolic surroundings would have a calming effect on those inside. But, no. Out in the wild, things only get wilder.
The census bureau counts prisoners just like they count everybody else. But, the census bureau considers prisoners as residents of the township where the prison is located, and not where they lived before they got convicted. "So what?", you say. The state uses these numbers to determine where financial aid like poverty funds are spent. Some rinky dink town upstate gets a big, fat check, while the inner city where the money would keep people from committing crimes, gets zippity-do-dah. The census is senseless.
Prisoner number 00B563, Raymond Browne. AKA, "Mondo" Browne. Convicted April 10th, 2000. Murder in the first degree. Sentence: 27 years. Up for parole in 11.
Those census numbers i was talking about, they're also used to determine election districts. A senator from a white, rural area with a prison, can count the inmates as his constitutes, and, therefore, increase his political influence. Those inmates, who are largely of color, aren't allowed to vote. The senator has no allegiance to them at all. In fact, he benefits by voting for laws to keep them incarcerated longer. The town benefits by the increased prison population. Yeah. Everybody benefits.
Deaths:[]
Nikolai Stanislofsky: Electrocuted by Claire Howell at Ryan O'Reily's request
Eli Zabitz: Collapsed from a heart attack after Chris Keller and James Robson both confront him in the workroom to kill him.
Hank Schillinger: Shot in the head off-screen by Gaetano Cincetta on orders by Chucky Pancamo and Tobias Beecher
(Unnamed) (Flashback): Cut up and skinned by Raymond Browne
Crime Flashbacks:[]
Eli Zabitz: Convicted April 6, 1996 for aggravated assault. Sentence: 9 years, up for parole in 6.
Raymond Browne: Murder in the first degree