PRISON JUSTICE TAKES A PRETTY NASTY TURN

In a bizarre episode at the Potosi Correctional Center, two inmates decided to administer a little justice of their own to another inmate, convicted killer Mark Christeson. Later, the two inmates sent details of their attack to the victim's hometown newspaper.

The response?

"A lot of people just basically think he got what he deserved," said Nichoel Snodgrass, managing editor of the Maries County Gazette in Vienna, Mo. "They're pretty ticked."

Certainly the people of Maries County have a right to be upset. In February 1998, Christeson raped and killed Susan Brouk and killed her two children, 12 and 9 years old, and dumped their bodies in a pond near their rural Vichy, Mo., home. Christeson is awaiting execution.

The two vigilante inmates, Larry Schell and Mark Bridges, said they heard about Christeson's crimes from a prison guard. "We thought we'd give him a bit of the suffering the victims went through," Bridges told a reporter for the Jefferson City News Tribune.

For administering their inmate justice, Schell and Bridges have been segregated from other inmates for a year, and the attack is likely to keep them from getting parole for a while. But no charges were filed against either inmate.

The circumstances of the prison attack and the efforts of the two inmates to publicize their deed is unusual, to say the least.

And it is easy to understand why residents of Maries County would be emotionally receptive to any pain and suffering endured by Christeson.

But what's disturbing is the notion of giving a killer "a bit of the suffering" his victims went through.

Under that code of fair play, Schell and Bridges are due for a thrashing of their own.

Schell is serving 90 years for manslaughter, assault and armed criminal action.

Bridges is serving 15 years for 13 burglary convictions.

One might wonder how the victims of this pair, no model citizens, would feel about a few swift kicks and well-placed punches to their aggressors.

To top it off, prison officials have reacted to the attack on Christeson by Schell and Bridges as another day at the correctional center.

Tim Kniest, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said he heard about the two inmates and their efforts to get publicity for their attack on Christeson "and I just kind of shook my head. There's something new every week."