All Comments on 'On the Chain'

Your Story is and was very well written . I hate the way it turned out . It shows how our criminal justice system really is , you are guilty till proven innocent . If you are poor you are mostly guilty , because you can not afford to be proven innocent . Again a very well described and written story !

They didn't even try to find out if he actually did any of the things the guards said he did!!! There is a special place in hell for people like that.....and another one for those who abuse their authority. The warden, the guards, the judge, the cops and the lawyers should all dread the day that they die as it will be the first day of an eternity of punishment for them.

Thank you for the feedback! I started this story imagining what it would really be like to be in such a position, and I had a happy ending in mind where the character got released after a weekend. But then I got interested in imagining what it would be like to have that hope and then have it taken from you. So the "release date" got moved out to 10 days or so. Then I realized that after 10 days with no hope and under extremely brutal treatment justified by "you deserve it," a person was liable to stop thinking rationally. So I decided on the current ending, which is still a bit ambiguous as to the main character's ultimate fate.

I'm glad to see that the story provoked such a strong response!

and guilt by association, circumstansally, TK U MLJ LV NV

You mention the guard unbuttoning Robert's pants before he was whipped. Was he also whipped on his bare buttocks?

Well, I really hated the way the story ended. Simply his boss and Marie gave up on him instead of stepping up and getting him released. I am sure this kind of punishment has happened in the past and it is one of being sick and disgusting. Robert will not be sane enough (if he lives at all) if he ever gets released. That the warden and guards can just turn around and add to his punishment without checking with any authority even with the court authority to release Robert immediately right in their hands, is beyond sanity. For a story, it was well written and plausible in the beginning. The ending sucked and I hope that an alternative ending would be written that gets Robert released and then others subjected to vicious punishment.