Rader, Dennis - BTK Killer, 10 consecutive life...

Dennis Rader, aka BTK Killer for "bind, torture, and kill," began serving his 10 consecutive life sentences at the maximum-security El Dorado Correctional Facility on Friday morning, August 19, 2005. Chained at the ankles, garbed in an orange prison jumpsuit, and staring out the window with tears in his eyes, Rader looked upon the prison that would, if he were assessed as being a security risk, likely be his home for the remainder of his sentence.

Rader spends his days in an 80 square-foot cell, with a foam-covered concrete bunk, one sink, a metal shelf, and a plastic trash can. He spends his one hour of free time a day, in shackles of course, in a chain-linked, outdoor, 10x10 foot pen. He is allowed three showers and five hour-long recreation periods a week. The District Attorney did everything in his power to ensure that Rader lacks access to any kind of material or medium that might help him relive his deviant fantasies, including pencils, pens, papers, news reports covering his own murders, audio or video recordings, or any inanimate article that could represent a fetish of a human or animal. It was also recommended that Rader's incoming mail be first fully censored by prison officials. Each time Rader leaves his cell it will be double-checked for any of the above-mentioned or similar items.

There was also a recommendation of classifying Rader as a sex offender, a risky label to possess inside a prison as dangerous as El Dorado. Sex offender classification would mean Rader would receive treatment as a sex offender instead of a violent offender. There are several purposes for administering treatment to someone serving a life sentence without parole, including the expanded knowledge of the inmate's case, the reduction of prison infractions, misconduct, or violations, and the improvement of placement decisions regarding appropriate security level and determination of the kind of access to certain privileges.

However, after a year following his placement at El Dorado, Rader is behaving well enough to grant him several privileges that violate these earlier recommendations. As of April, he is allowed television and radio access, and he can read newspapers, magazines, and books. Even though Rader used to cut out magazine advertisements of women and children to further his sexual fantasies, he is nevertheless now permitted to draw upon paper with a pencil or pen. For television, however, Rader must shell out the money to pay for it: at least $103 for a 13-inch color, or $80 for a 12-inch black-and-white if purchased in prison. In addition, all televisions are protected with a sheath of plastic molding to prevent any prohibited materials from being stored inside, and must be listened to through a pair of headphones. Even though materials depicting sexual or erotic stimuli are not allowed, victims have argued that he would still be able to read about himself, with access to popular magazines such as Time and Newsweek, feeding his narcissistic dreams.

According to the Kansas Department of Corrections, Rader has progressed two "incentive" levels, criteria used to measure an inmate's good behavior that have become popular in school-wide behavior management systems. In some minimum security establishments, incentive levels, or "earning privileges," determine the allowed amount of cash to be spent each week, the number of total personal possessions, and level of association or socialization time with other inmates (which clearly would not apply to Rader).