Chomo
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Chomo is prison slang for a child molester. John Kiriakou says he had never heard the term before he arrived at FCI Loretto.

The vetting

As the new man, Kiriakou immediately drew attention. He explains the division of authority that made the moment matter: where a prisoner slept, which bunk in which cell, was assigned by the prison, but where he ate, and which tables would accept him, was decided by the prisoners sitting at those tables.

On his first day a tall, pasty skinhead with a swastika covering his entire neck asked him point blank whether he was a fag. Kiriakou said no.

A shorter, heavier man with white power and swastika tattoos covering his arms asked the second question: was he a rat? Kiriakou said no, and says the question surprised him, he blurted out that he had not had anybody else in his case.

The third question was whether he was a chomo. Kiriakou did not know the word. The tall man repeated it slowly, as though Kiriakou were stupid, and then translated: child molester. Kiriakou said of course he was not.

With the questions answered, the two men, whom Kiriakou describes, with some irony, as his new friends, informed him that he was now invited to sit with the Aryans in the cafeteria.

Weight of the word

The label carried consequences beyond seating. Kiriakou says pedophiles were reviled throughout the federal system, and that at Loretto, which had a reputation as a haven for them, whatever violence there was usually landed on them. Many were barred by their own roommates from their rooms except to sleep and during counts, and some were banned from the yard altogether.

Because the label was so heavy, it was also usable. Kiriakou describes a prisoner known as Truck, a convicted serial killer who had strangled a 16-year-old, something that technically made him a chomo, and about which Kiriakou says he was very, very sensitive. Kiriakou later used that sensitivity deliberately, telling Truck that another prisoner had called him a pedophile; Truck beat the man unconscious.

See also

- FCI Loretto
- Prison pedophile accounts
- Aryan Brotherhood
- Truck The Serial Killer
- The rat and pedophile table
