Chapter 21, Alan: Life in Prison
Amy notes, "After Alan was discovered, he fled to a unit at a hospital that specialized in treating pedophilia. There he was treated while awaiting his formal charges and incarceration." page 175, para. 2. After Alan was convicted and sent to the Federal prison in with the general population, his living conditions were similar to documentaries seen on television of prison life. However, his description of the years he spent at the treatment center surprised me. Alan four years after his arrest, " Looking back, I realize that it was not until I was put on Depo and later Lupron, (these are both drugs that inhibit or reduce the production of testosterone) that I had any feeling for what life could be without living under the constant pressure of sexual drives and desires. After two weeks on Lupron, my entire life truly changed. Ever since I was a preschool child, sex had been the predominant issue in my life. I cannot remember a period in my life when I was not acting out and spending endless hours lost in fantasy and plotting. Throughout the entire course of my life, nothing that I did proved sufficient to break this destructive obsession until I was put on Lupron. page 175 para.3. I think this paragraph is striking. I never dreamed a preschool child could be sexually abnormal. All I have ever heard from Pediatrician's is children having sexual reactions is normal and as a parent you should not make a big thing out of it. Obviously, Alan was out of control of his own body at a very young age and needed chemicals to balance his testosterone levels preschool. Alan pondered, "I can't tell you how many times I lay in bed at night asking myself what life could have been like if I had been given this drug twenty or thirty hears earlier. I have the same question in my mind. How different would my life have been if my brothers sexual desires had been chemically altered? Was I oversexed at an early age? Was my hormone levels too high? Did a physical abnormality make me into a prime victim? I will never know the answer to this question. Our county gave immunization shots to all children at school, so I was seldom seen by a Dr. except for an annual physical for sports insurance through the school. I cannot remember blood ever being drawn so I cannot go back to review old records. Our children deserve an answer to these questions and protection.
I will research this question and more: "Does a pediatrician chart children's hormone levels as common practice?" If so, what do they do with the results? Alan was a grown man in prison before he had enough information to consider he could have led a different life. Our medical system certainly let Alan down, and I believe let me and my brothers down as well.
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