toldailytopic: Registered Sex Offenders: should there even be such a registry?

[Ktoyou]

I like the idea of a true life sentence, but I have yet to find a proposition to that end that would actually work. Have you? I sure would like to be able to get behind some plan that would make true life sentences a reality, for all the reasons that you set forth.

If such a thing were implemented, what sort of life would these prisoners live? I would think that it would need to be sufficiently punitive that, for the most part, surviving members of a victim's family would feel like justice was done. Would these prisoners be allowed visitors? To what extent would they be allowed to interact with one another? That's the sort of question people would want to have answered if a proper life sentence could be achieved without chance of repeal or parole.

Do you know why anyone opposes a true life-without-chance-of-parole sentence? Other than saving money, I can't think of a single reason for opposing it, and saving money is a lousy excuse for failing to properly enforce the law.

This is a problem with our system and it can be changed if enough people demand it. I prison could force inmates to work, it used to be that way and it could again be that way. A prison could be profitable; this would seem to me more like justice, to know the predator was forced to work or get the lash.

 

[Ktoyou]

I actually have a bit of a personal stake in this issue. My best friend from the time I was eight has to register because he was falsely accused and there were no witnesses to back up his story. His attorney told him if he didn't plead guilty he would go to prison. So he signed an agreement for probation. And since he did this no one was able to testify that she was a known liar in regard to things like this. She even lied about me once. Of course there were four ear witnesses that I was not guilty. I say "ear" because she accused me of making sexual comments toward her. And the messed up part is what really happened is she instigated the conversation toward that by asking me if I'd ever have sex with her. I avoided answering the question, then she turned around and accused me of initiating that line of dialog.

She later confessed to all the people she had lied to that she was lying. Most of whom didn't believe her anyway. So there were plenty of witnesses that she lied about such things. There were also witnesses that she lied about certain things in her statement about what had occurred earlier in the day. But since he signed an agreement that was all ignored.

All this to say, my mom told me she had found his name on one of the websites. She already knew this story so she expected that was why, but the website gave no indication, whatsoever, what his offense was. And according to the official records [her statement] it was non-violent and their age difference was only a year. But there is nothing to alert anyone to the fact that it was not for rape or child molestation. So if someone were to get it in their head that they wanted to take down a violent sex offender for some reason they would have no way of knowing he wasn't even accused of a non-violent crime.

Of course, if he hadn't signed the agreement he might have been proven innocent.

This does happen too often, the DA offers a 'deal' and it ruins the mans' life. There should be a high penalty for making a false charge in this case, it should include prison. In this case deterrence works like a charm. Just as it keep bank tellers hands out of the till, those who know the consequences and are rational human beings are deterred.

This is a problem for CJ, we gone to far and now we have some calling wolf just to get even.

 

[Ktoyou]

It seems like every morning there is news of another young girl abducted, raped, and murdered. And every day the suspect fits the same description.... registered sex offender.

Are we nuts????

Why do we let this continue??? What kind of a savage nation are we that intentionally places sex offenders back into the community to terrorize innocent women and children?

We act as if we are being "civil" and "progressive"... so willing to give another chance that we sacrifice innocent people in the name of being merciful. It disgusts me. We aren't being civil or progressive.... it's barbaric and backwards to allow these animals to be free to strike again and again.

This is the system we have. I agree, it is nuts. This does not change it; we need to use the power of the vote to make changes and it will change if people will it so, albeit slowly, which is the nature of policy in any democracy.

 

[The Graphite]

I'm happy to jump on board with a mandatory "life sentence." It would be carried out swiftly. Guess how long it is?

Reminds me of a few of Ambrose Bierce's definitions in his inimitable "Devil's Dictionary"....

Rope, n. An obsolescent appliance for reminding assassins that they too are mortal. It is put about the neck and remains in place one's whole life long.

Tree, n. A tall vegetable intended by nature to serve as a penal apparatus, though through a miscarriage of justice most trees bear only a negligible fruit, or none at all. When naturally fruited, the tree is a beneficent agency of civilization and an important factor in public morals.

Hangman, n. An officer of the law charged with duties of the highest dignity and utmost gravity, and held in hereditary disesteem by a populace having a criminal ancestry. In some of the American States his functions are now performed by an electrician, as in New Jersey, where executions by electricity have now recently been ordered -- the first instance known to this lexicographer of anybody questioning the expediency of hanging Jerseymen.​