Title: S2E7 Letters From Loretto
Show: John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
Date: 2026-06-29
URL: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a3449bd6f90df4cb7b65efa/media.mp3
Duration: 0:32:51

---

[00:00] Monday.com. AI agents took over my work and I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders, agents handle the daily grind. Now I stay in the loop only when it matters. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Still using the tournament with an online sports book time to ditch the app and join Koushi America's number one prediction market platform. Koushi is live and regulated in all 50 states on Koushi. You're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of

[06:48] between 6 a.m. and 6 15 a.m. But I went directly to the evening pill line attendant and told him that I had an emergency. He wrapped the finger and told me to see the PA in the morning. I returned to medical in the morning with my entire left hand swollen. My finger doubled in size and I told my PA that I was certain it was broken. No, the PA said. It's just jammed. He put it in a splint, despite my request for an x-ray, which he denied. He told me to come back in a week and then he gave me some ibuprofen.

[07:19] Even with the ibuprofen, the swelling and pain did not improve. Again, I asked for an x-ray. Finally, 10 days after the injury, the PA agreed to it. The x-ray found that a tendon had snapped off at the center knuckle, pulling a chunk of bone off with it. Broken. Just like I had said. The PA re-wrapped it in another splint and said he would make arrangements to send me to an orthopedic specialist nearby. In the meantime, he said, keep it wrapped. Eight days later and 18 days after the injury, I heard that dreaded

[07:50] announcement. Kiriyaku, report to the lieutenant's office. I walked to the office and was told that I was going for an outside medical consultation. First, I was escorted to the medical unit where I was strip searched and given brown pants, a brown t-shirt, a pair of underwear, a pair of socks and a pair of slippers. The CEO took my clothes and watch and put them in a plastic bag that he locked in the unit. I was then handcuffed and shackled around my ankles. A chain was placed around my waist, which connected to my handcuffs and my leg irons.

[08:20] Then a black steel box about the size of a computer hard drive was locked over the handcuffs so the lock could not be picked. Remember, I'm a dangerous criminal if I had been in a camp where I was supposed to be. An inmate driver would have simply dropped me off at the doctor's office and then picked me up afterward. But a nameless, faceless bureaucrat in the Bureau of Prisons decided that I was a threat to public safety. Now completely shackled, the CEO handed me a form and told me to sign it. It was a list of rules for the trip to the doctor, including that

[08:52] I promised not to escape and that if I do try to escape, I understand that I would be shot. One rule in particular caught my eye. It said that for the duration of the trip, I was to call everybody sir. I said I wouldn't sign it. I wouldn't try to escape, but respect is earned. I'm old enough to be the CEO's father, yet he calls me Kiriyaku. I said that I would call him CEO, but I wasn't going to call him sir. Well, he said he simply wouldn't take me to the doctor. Fine, I said. We stared at each other for a

[11:56] to Jaisalyn Radek and Fire Dog Lake. They used to print these things immediately. As soon as they would arrive, they would print them. And then immediately the guards would start passing them around. The only response that it got at Loretto was a tongue lashing from the PA. I said to him, you seem like a nice enough guy. You really do. But you're a fucking asshole, too. You knew my finger was broken and you didn't do anything. It's your job to treat me. And you didn't do anything.

[18:44] you almost immediately develop a new sense of normal. What's normal on the outside, a rude clerk at a 7-Eleven, a telemarketer calling your home at dinnertime, is no longer my world. My new normal is that the guy I may sit across from in the cafeteria is here for murdering a policeman. Normal is that the guy in the next bunk is the former methamphetamine king of Kentucky and will likely die here. Normal is that nearly 30% of the now 1,325 prisoners at Loretto are pedophiles and child rapists.

[19:17] I mentioned in a previous letter that I now work in the chapel. This is a highly sought after and peaceful job. I like the chapel and the staff is terrific. The chapel, like the library, is seen as something of a safe haven though for pedophiles. They aren't hassled there and they can sit and read for long periods. There's one informal rule in the chapel, however. No talking about your case. One evening, a particularly loud pedophile was complaining outside the chapel's office that he was in the process of suing his mother,

[19:49] brother, and wife who had completely disowned him after he was caught having sex with his 15-year-old daughter. Quote, but she wanted to, he protested. She enjoyed it, unquote. He actually said those things. I walked over to him and I reminded him that he was not allowed to talk about his case in the chapel. His response left me speechless. He said, but Jesus loved the little children. I just went back to my seat. One elderly pedophile in my housing unit was caught on the old NBC television show to catch a predator.

[20:19] He thought he was going to have sex with a 13-year-old. Instead, the cops grabbed him. In the trunk of his car, they found handcuffs, a hammer, a bag of lime, and a body bag. You can imagine his intentions. I won't bore you with stories of how photos of my cellmate's five-year-old grandchild were stolen from his locker, or how some pedophiles subscribe to teen magazines so they can cut out pictures of Selena Gomez and hang them in their lockers. The purpose of these horrible accounts is not to disgust. Instead, it's to point out several problems,

[20:51] only one of which is unique to Loretto. First, if pedophiles are not permitted within 1,000 feet of a school, why are they permitted within five feet of my children? Why isn't there a section of the visiting room where pedophiles can have their visits, but that is separated by a partition? It couldn't possibly be expensive, and it would serve to protect our children. Of course, if I had been sent to a camp, as was recommended by both the judge and the prosecutor in my case, it would be a different story. Pedophiles are not permitted in camps.

[21:24] Remember, though, that a Bureau of Prisons bureaucrat deemed me to be a threat to the public's safety. Second, despite what you may have read over the years, there is no such thing as treatment or rehabilitation in prison. It just doesn't exist. There's no counseling or medication for pedophiles. Once their sentences have been served, they're free to leave and to live in society again. Sure, they'll have years and years of probation, but that won't do anything to curb their urges. It's a proven fact that many of them will re-offend.

[21:55] Finally, since I got here, I've come to realize how little the federal government does to protect our children from predators. Perhaps it's time to consider the issue of civil confinement. That's where the government moves a pedophile to a secure location on the prison grounds after he has completed his sentence. He's not necessarily subject to counts or to 10-minute moves like everybody else in prison, but he is not free to re-enter society and to re-offend. This system works in Virginia and in other states,

[22:26] and it helps greatly to protect our children. Thank you for the hundreds of letters of support and encouragement since my last letter. They've really kept my spirits up. All the best, John. On that letter, I got some pushback from the general public. A lot of people castigated me for endorsing civil confinement. They said, no, when you've done your time, you've paid your debt to society and you're free. Well, let me tell you about a guy

[22:56] that I worked with in the chapel. His name was Cook. Cook was a pedophile. He was near 70 years old from Kentucky, thick Kentucky drawl. He had been caught with child porn and got the mandatory five-year sentence for a first-time offender, and then he did it again. And he got 20 years. Well, he was at the tail end of his 20 years when I met him in the chapel. And about four months before I left Loretto, he finished his sentence and he left.

[23:27] The week that I was leaving Loretto, I'm walking to work in the chapel and I see Cook. And I said, Cook, what are you doing here? And he says to me, well, I've got a problem. I said, Cook, shame on you. How many years did they give you this time? And he said, 60, I'm gonna die in here. I said, society is better off without you in it. And then I went to work. This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents.

[23:57] Reese, our content agent, wrote the copy based on our best practices, like mentioning Monday.com three times. That was the second. Johnny, our coordination agent, built the timeline and kept everyone aligned. Olivia, our human creative director, stayed in the loop because agents are great, but they don't always know when a joke lands. She had one note, tell listeners it only takes minutes to build an agent. So, minutes. Create your own AI agent today on Monday.com. Still using the tournament with an online sports book. Time to ditch the app and join Kalshi,

[30:48] that an investigation would be conducted. It turned out that the investigation was of me. My email was put on a four day delay, both incoming and outgoing. My incoming and outgoing snail mail was stripped open and read and none of my witnesses were interviewed. I wasn't surprised by any of this. This is exactly what happens to all whistleblowers. Thanks for reading, John. Thanks again for listening to Dead Drop, doing time like a spy. As always, we thank you for listening

[31:18] and we especially thank you for liking, commenting on, reviewing, rating or sharing the podcast. It really does make a difference and it means a lot to us. Until next time, I'm John Kiriakou. Dead Drop is written by John Kiriakou and Alan Katz. CostART and Touchstone Productions produces the podcast and John Kiriakou, Alan Katz and Nick Mechanic are its executive producers. This podcast, it's a CostART and Touchstone production.

[31:53] Monday AI agents took over my work and I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders, agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff. Knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com.
