A few weeks ago I was watching Larry King and his guest was Judy Scheindlin -- Judge Judy. This was right before the arrest of the neighbor of the little girl who was kidnapped and murdered in San Diego. King asked her for her thoughts about placing sex offenders back into society, based on her years of experience as a family court judge in New York.
She was unequivocal. She said it is completely unacceptable for young children to live in proximity of pedophiles, as long as there is no cure for pedophilia. She said the way the law is written now, once they've served their time they must be released, but they are still a danger to society, and as a parent it is just completely an unacceptable risk level to have these kinds of sex offenders on the loose in proximity to your children. Her idea was that there are a lot of western states with plenty of open space, and that a community should be developed where these people can be relocated to live with others who have likewise offended, where they can be isolated from the rest of us, to whom they are a danger. Although what she was saying was extreme, I cannot think of a circumstance where it is acceptable to put these people back out in the community. If there were proven treatments that had been demonstrated to work and rehabilitate, I would think differently. Not a politically correct position, but when you're dealing with life and death matters, don't we bear some culpability if we continue to create situations where these people can offend again? I'm usually liberal on social issues, but as I said earlier, we know these people can't be helped and that they are dangerous, and yet we knowingly return them to society to prey on innocent victims -- how crazy is that? We have to find a different alternative to putting these people back into our neighborhoods when they are known to be highly likely to re-offend. Remember, there is no known way to rehabilitate these people. People who have paid their debt to society and have some chance for rehabilitation, it is a different story. Unfortunately, our corrections system is more geared toward punishment than it is to rehabilitation and the rate of recidivism is unacceptably high across the board, but that is another topic. Are more of these offenders placed in the inner city than in suburbs or rural areas? If that is the case, perhaps the best alternative is to work with a coalition of urban legislators, since that is the squeaky wheel, to change the law and keep these people off the streets and out of our neighborhoods -- forever. Or perhaps the answer is to change the sentencing guidelines? After all, when people are found innocent by reason of insanity we keep them locked up until they are "cured" -- and no longer a danger. Why can't we do something with sex offenders who are equally as sick? Barbara Nelson Burnsville "We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility." - Albert Einstein, Physicist _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
