I’m not very good at reading people, but I’ve always said that it’s easy to tell when Luke Wenke is lying. This letter (Document #148) is a great example of what I mean when I say that.
 

Luke Wenke mailed this letter from the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio to the judge overseeing his case in late August 2024. He had just arrived at the facility and, by his own admission, was having issues with his “aggressive” cellmate.
 

In a rare diversion from his typical self-pitying, foaming-at-the-mouth diatribes to the court, Wenke wrote that he had undergone a change of heart. That he regretted being a persistent shit-talker and was done obsessively trash-talking his victims. Wenke was a changed person, and he now suddenly cared about the people affected by his behaviour.
 

Reading this, I got the distinct impression that upon arriving at NEOCC, Luke Wenke received a taste of what some of America’s less accommodating prisons are like. Based on research and conversations with people who have better knowledge of the incarceration system than myself, most of the facilities Wenke has been detained at are known for having more favourable conditions than other lock-ups. I’ve heard at least one of these jails being jokingly referred to as “summer camp,” and Luke Wenke even talked about his experience at FCI Allenwood as if it were a social club (page 3, paragraph 2).

Is NEOCC really that bad?

Located in Mahoning County, Ohio, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility is a privately-owned medium-security men’s prison. It opened in 1997 and was immediately plagued by violence between inmates and challenges to authority.
 

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons ended its contract with NEOCC in 2014 as part of a larger-scale effort to phase out the agency’s use of private prisons, but the facility still contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service to house pretrial and pre-sentencing federal detainees. Private prisons in general are apparently known for having an inordinate amount of violence among inmates, and Wenke repeatedly touches on the facility’s ownership throughout his letter, indicating a perceived correlation between private prison ownership and the seemingly traumatic nature of his new environment.
 

When I first learned that Luke Wenke had been transferred to NEOCC, I breathed a sigh of relief. The further away from me he is, the safer I feel, even if I logically know that he’s unlikely to escape from jail. Looking at the facility’s website, I thought it was going to be another “summer camp.” NEOCC is run by a company called CoreCivic, which does a good job at making itself seem quality-, safety-, and rehabilitation-focused.
 

During a conversation with a relative, I mentioned that Wenke had been transferred to a private prison and that it seemed, based on the website, like an accommodating environment (to put it nicely). My relative immediately burst into laughter and said “yeah, that’s what the website says.” He went on to remind me that another relative of ours had spent decades working in prisons, and that he always said private-run facilities are the worst.
 

All things considered, it’s probably safe to assume that NEOCC is more dangerous than the other facilities Luke Wenke has lived in. In my opinion, he seems terrified in his letter. He certainly implies that he had just experienced a major wake-up call of some sort. My guess is that the old “fuck around and find out” method, of which Wenke is a loyal subscriber, led to the sobering realisation that if he continues along his path, he could end up in a very scary place.

Was this the wake-up call that Wenke needed in order to change his ways?

Hardly. Like usual, even life’s hard-learned lessons tend not to sink in for Luke Wenke. He clearly had a shitty day, which apparently caused him to reflect on his own actions and their potential consequences. But was he really sorry? In my opinion, no. Not even a little bit.
 
These infrequent claims of turning over a new leaf scare me, because certain parties involved in this case seem to place a disproportionate (bordering on irrational) amount of trust in even the slightest expression of remorse from Wenke. Throughout this entire fucking case, the moment he acknowledges wrongfulness or says that he understands he needs to change, it’s as if the jail/prison walls magically crumble around him. As a victim, I’m sickened and horrified by it.
 

Wenke didn’t explicitly apologise, and he even excused his abhorrent behaviour by stating that he was too harsh in his truth-telling ways. He doesn’t tell the truth. He lies his ass off about his victims and he does so knowingly. The fact that he attempts to fucking martyr himself as a crusader of honesty makes an already highly questionable expression of regret seem like an even bigger pile of horseshit. I think Wenke was reciting scripted lines – saying what he thought he needed to say in order to seem sorry, and like he was a changed person – in hopes of somehow navigating his way into a less unpleasant living situation.
 

If Luke Wenke were to undergo meaningful change and growth, it wouldn’t happen at the snap of a finger after having the shit scared out of himself by a fellow inmate. I personally have no hope that Wenke can be trained to act like a human being, but if it were possible, I think it’d take years (or even decades) for him to get there. And even if he eventually learned how to act right, I don’t think it’s possible to replace sociopathic traits with a sense of empathy.
 

Wenke only has a history of acting remorseful when his own life circumstances are deteriorating. Anytime he feels confident and well, the onslaught of stalking and harassment is as strong as ever. Almost immediately after writing this letter, Wenke reverted back to his obsessive and slanderous ways. I really hope the people involved in his case finally see this pattern.
 

The U.S. prison system desperately needs reform, especially for inmates who show good prospects for rehabilitation. Even those deemed incapable of rehabilitation deserve to live in a Spartan but humane environment. I believe Wenke falls into the latter category, and that NEOCC was the most appropriate facility for him out of all the jails and prisons where he’s been housed. And while I don’t actively wish ill upon him, I don’t give a fuck if terrible things happen to him. Oh well.
 

Wenke lived in gentle, coddling environments and showed no meaningful signs of change. He went to a harsher environment and promised to change but didn’t. I hoped, for years, that he could and would change. I abandoned that hope because I owed it to myself to be realistic, and I think he belongs in a place for people who are proven, chronic threats to society.
 

To read a typed version of this letter, scroll past the PDF viewer.

USA v. Wenke – 1:22-cr-00035
Document #148 – Filed August 27^th, 2024