Brock Turner, the Stanford University student convicted of sexual assault, was placed in protective custody while serving out his six-month sentence at the Santa Clara County Jail.
TMZ reported that it is “to keep him safe from inmates who might harm him.”
A representative with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office spoke with the website, which reported that he’s being held in an area “away from the general inmate population, and will have a deputy escort whenever he moves around the grounds.”
“They’re kept totally separate ... so they aren’t harmed,” the representative, who was not named, told TMZ.
The only other inmates he will come into contact with are also in protective custody.
“We’re told Turner’s ‘protective custody’ status is not due to the fact his case is so high-profile—but rather because he was convicted of sexual assault ... and those type of inmates are often targeted,” the website reported.
Meawnhile, a pre-sentencing letter that Turner, 20, had written to the judge was published this week.
“I’ve been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school,” wrote the former Stanford University swimmer. “I’ve lost my chance to swim in the Olympics.”
He blamed the sexual assault he committed on campus “party culture,” peer pressure, alcohol consumption, and promiscuity. The New York Times published a copy of the letter on June 8.
The judge in the case, Aaron Pesky, who sentenced Turner to six months---far less than the 14-year maximum sentence---was the recipient of death threats this week.
“He has received threats and his family has received threats,” said Santa Clara County Public Defender Gary Goodman, reported ABC7 News.
“He’s a kind man, he’s a well measured man, he’s an excellent jurist,” said Goodman of Pesky. “He follows the rules. He follows the statutes. He follows the process. The process worked here.”
