This is either a serious human error or divine justice:

An inmate who was mistakenly put in a jail cell with a man who had raped and choked him as a child will not be prosecuted for beating the molester.

Jason Flores, 23, will still will have to serve more than two years in prison for other crimes, including car theft and burglary. But prosecutors said Monday they have dropped a battery charge.

Flores was arrested for a string of crimes in October and found himself at the Orient Road Jail, face to face with Kevin Kinder. Flores attacked him.

Three mental health experts testified on Flores' behalf at his sentencing, saying the counseling he received after being raped was inadequate.

An expert from the University of South Florida said that Flores suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and that his accidental encounter with Kinder upset him.

"At age 10, Jason was brutally raped, strangled and left for dead in a field," said Rick Escobar, Flores' attorney. "You can't have greater trauma, in my opinion. He had been frozen in time all these years."

Kinder pleaded guilty in 1992 to performing lewd acts on four boys, including Flores, and served six years behind bars. He had been returned to prison for violating his probation.

I wonder how often this type of thing happens and who should be responsible for this kind of mistake. In this particular case, the information connecting the abuser and the victim was available per the trial documents. Yet, I find it hard to burden prison officials with an extra legal records search for such low probability connections between cellmates. There is also those connections which cannot be known, such as where the abuser was never caught or never charged due to a lack of evidence.

The other point to ponder is the effect the original crime had upon the victim. Guilty of car theft and burglary, he appears to be headed toward a life of crime. It is impossible to say his life would be different if he had not been so brutally attacked at the age of 10, but I do wonder if there is any correlation between this kind of abuse and future criminal behavior. Although an individual's behavior is not governed by their environment and experience, both factors do play a major role in shaping who someone turns out to be.