VH-1 show misses point

Congratulations to newfound rock star Christopher Bissey, singer in the metal group Dark Mischief. He has been given the spotlight in a VH-1 reality television show. He's made it.\nHe's given new meaning to becoming famous at any cost. In his case, the cost were the lives of 15-year-old Mary Orlando, and 17-year-old Jennifer Grider.\nBissey, a drug dealer, shot and killed those two innocent girls in 1995. Never mind "American Idol," a rap sheet and a stint in prison is now the key to superstardom courtesy of the new VH-1 series "Music Behind Bars."\nA three-week search for a serial sniper in Maryland recently concluded with the arrest of two men found in a car with a rifle and a scope in the trunk. If you thought their reign of terror garnered them national exposure, wait until VH-1 gets its turn. Next on Music Behind Bars; a long look at the prison Jazz band "Sniper and the Hitmen."\nWhat VH-1 president Christina Norman and show producer Arnold Shapiro have created is more degrading and deplorable than any raunchy cartoon or violent mini series could dream to be. The bodies of two young girls rest in peace. Family and friends are left devastated while VH-1 disengages viewer's minds with a show that poses as a positive series about men and women who claim music has transformed their lives despite unfortunate circumstances. VH-1 is pimping criminals.\nVH-1 has emphatically missed its mark with Music Behind Bars. In an attempt to prove music as a life-altering factor in an inmate's life, it instead demonstrates the absurdity of our prison system's security enforcement. One juror saved Bissey from death row. He was sentenced to life without parole and a microphone. That's American justice.\nDamian Behanan is serving a ten-year burglary and robbery sentence at the Kentucky State Reformatory for a night he said just "got out of hand." VH-1 gave him the limelight throughout his quest to compose and sing his visiting wife a song. How cute, a love story.\nWhat the viewer saw was Behanan relaxing on prison playground, composing lyrics with fellow prisoners and begging to have available his keyboard during the visit. A keyboard during a visit is forbidden at the prison. Behanan was granted an exception -- shocker.\n"Writing lyrics has been a very therapeutic method for me doing time," Behanan said. Is that what this series wants to prove, that music is therapeutic for criminals? Reading a book, meeting with prison advisors and dead silence in an eight square foot cellblock with a mattress is therapeutic. At one point he was smoothing license plate corners. Hard labor, now that's therapy. \nThere is no logical defense for this show. Inmates don't have a right to express themselves on television; their rights were forfeited the day they were convicted. Music is not a beneficial means for expression but a privilege inmates sacrificed. \nGive them a Bible, a notepad, a ballpoint pen and some exercise but it's unfair, immoral and offensive to give convicted criminals the national stage.\nIgnoring the show isn't an alternative. If it were, "Faces of Death" would have a prime time Thursday slot.\nImagine your brother, sister or child brutally beaten, raped or murdered and the person responsible being pimped on national television. I suspect you would be outraged.