The Menendez brothers’ 1993 trial described acts of clear-cut brutality, but also moral ambiguity. In August 1989, 18-year-old Erik and 21-year-old Lyle Menendez took shotguns to their parents in their Beverly Hills home. They fired over a dozen shots, first killing their dad, Jose, and their mom, Kitty, as she fled the scene. Afterward, they discarded their shotguns, bought movie theater tickets as an alibi, and called 911, yelling, “Somebody killed my parents!” Then, they went on a spending spree with their father’s $14.5 million. Years later, during their trial, they blamed it all on years of sexual abuse endured at the hands of their father. And so began the great Menendez moral entanglement.
Advertisement
The Menendez brothers’ legal representatives framed the brothers as victims, but they still received life-without-parole sentences in 1996 and were sent to different facilities. “I’m outraged,” defense attorney Leslie H. Abramson said, per the Los Angeles Times. “This is torture! I’m going to war against the Department of Corrections.” Deputy Public Defender Terri Towery echoed these sentiments. “This will make their life sentences even more miserable,” she said. “I think it’s really, really sad and I’m sorry that our society has become so vindictive.”
Law enforcement and judicial personnel thought differently. The brothers were criminals who committed a calculated, first-degree parricide — that was the end of it. Along these lines, Erik and Lyle were initially categorized as “maximum security inmates” and kept isolated from all other prisoners. Such inmates have rights, but few priviledges. The Menendez brothers have been on good behavior since then, however, and currently receive more perks than many other inmates, including yoga classes, academic coursework, tablets, and more.
Advertisement
The brothers were relocated out of maximum security
Until somewhat recently, Erik and Lyle Menendez were housed at different prison facilities. After receiving their 1996 life sentences, Erik was sent to Pleasant Valley State Prison and Lyle to Mule Creek State Prison. Both facilities are in California, but about 200 miles apart. At the time and as mentioned, they were maximum security inmates, aka “high security.” This level is reserved for violent offenders and comes with strict rules and few perks. Inmates can spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells. Doors are reinforced, windowless, with only a little slit for slipping in trays of food. There are armed guards everywhere, watch towers, barbed wire fences around the whole facility, high walls — you name it.
Advertisement
In 2013, however, Erik got moved to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD) near San Diego. Lyle followed in 2018. As the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation outlines, RJD is a very rehabilitative-minded facility with loads of programs covering baking, welding and HVAC training, language literacy courses, GED certification and some university-level courses, drug treatment and therapy courses, community service groups, religious groups, a “bicycle refurbishing” group, and more. In short, RJD is the kind of place where the brothers would have access to more perks than not.
While we don’t know the exact reason they were moved, it seems like good behavior played a factor. Biography reports that Erik Menendez only had “two serious rules violations” during his entire, currently almost 30-year prison tenure. Lyle has had no such violations whatsoever.
Advertisement
The brothers currently get a lot of prison perks
Bearing in mind that Erik and Lyle Menendez have individual sentences and may not have precisely the same prison privileges and perks, we have a general sense of what their life in prison is really like at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD). First off, both Erik and Lyle live in a non-designated programming facility (NDFP) at RJD. In a 2023 Prison Law Office Report to San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (a California prison in the same system as RJD), NDFPs are designed for “inmates who demonstrate positive behavior and a willingness to participate in rehabilitative programs and conform to departmental policies, free from Security Threat Group (STG) influence and behavior.” At RJD, this facility is dubbed “Echo Yard,” and it grants prisoners access to high-level perks. This includes yoga and art classes, different university subjects, and a wider range of rehabilitative programs related to topics like substance abuse and anger management. We don’t know if, or how often, the Menendez brothers take advantage of such privileges, but the option is there.
Advertisement
Additionally, the Menendez brothers are labeled “Group A” prisoners, which grants them even more perks. Specifically, they get access to tablets. These tablets aren’t connected to internet browsers, but they do allow prisoners to email approved contacts and read magazines. The tablets also afford inmates the chance to make free voice calls and also limited video calls, with the option of paying to speak longer. All in all, these are pretty cozy perks compared to the beginning of the Menendez brothers’ incarceration and compared to other inmates, in general.
