April 21, 2005

They Don't Deserve Another Chance

There has been a lot in the news recently regarding registered sex offenders who had been in prison for their crimes and were sent back into society.  Their next crime was taking the lives of innocent children.  Most recently, we have all heard of the Jessica Lundsford case.  Over at Parrot Check, Craig posted about this tragedy, and the horrific news that Jessica had been buried alive.

Yes folks, she was bound, wrapped up in plastic trashbags, and then buried. I can not stomach the horror that this beautiful little girl must have gone through. I can only imagine the fear, the pain. I can imagine the feeling of being unable to breathe. The gasping struggle for air. And then imagine it happening to Jessica. I feel a fury only a parent can feel. If it were my child that was tortured and murdered, the person or persons responsible had better watch their backs for the rest of their lives lest they meet a fate less than pleasant.

It is a known fact that sexual predators are rarely, if ever, "rehabilitated."  Why do we let these monsters back on the street?  In an article on Fox News:

Criminologists say it’s all too frequent that the perpetrator is a pathological sexual predator, as in the case of Jessica’s alleged killer in Florida, John Evander Couey, and Roger Paul Bentley, who Iowa police say murdered Jetseta.

“It happens all the time,� said Louis B. Schlesinger, a forensic psychologist specializing in criminal behavior and sex crimes at John J. College of Criminal Justice in New York. “The dangerous ones have a high recidivism rate.�

According to data from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, there are 381,967 entries for sex offenders in the NCIC Sex Offender Registration File — though not all states require sex offenders to be registered in the same way and some offenders are entered into the database for more than one state.

There have been multiple cases by which these sex offenders don't end up registering when they move, and a significant number of these criminals end up moving in right next to schools.  The laws vary by state, the burden to register is largely left up to the offender (are the nuts running the asylum here?!?!?!?) and there are multiple loopholes these freaks find.  In many states, a police department can't even act.  If they discover that a sex offender has moved too close to a school, AKA violating the terms of their release, they can only be told to move - no arrest!  So in effect, the very laws that were supposedly designed to keep our children safe are, in fact, doing the exact opposite - "cocooning" the criminal!  More on the Fox News article:

The Jessica Lunsford case so outraged her Florida community that a state representative, Charles Dean, said he’s introducing a bill called the "Jessica Lunsford Act" that would, among other things, require convicted sex offenders to wear electronic tracking devices.

“It’s a matter of us doing the job right. We need to find the loopholes, find the cracks,� Dean told FOX News.

As I stated previously, these criminals should not be given another chance and turned lose in society:

The reason many convicted sex offenders go out and molest more children, say sociologists and criminologists, is similar to why alcoholics continue to drink.

“Their sexual preference is for children. They have a compulsion to molest children,� said Keith F. Durkin, a criminologist at Ohio Northern University and an expert in the study of pedophilia. “Many, if not all, will molest children until the day they die. They’re dangerous and they’re going to reoffend.�

But there aren’t accurate numbers about the rate of recidivism among child molesters, since many of their repeat offenses go unreported.

Not only are they almost certain to continue sexually abusing children, but some eventually kill their young victims — more often than not for the purpose of keeping them quiet.

“Usually it’s to cover up the crime so the victim won’t say who he is,� Schlesinger said.

Which is more than likely what happened to Jessica Lunsford.  The thing that gets me, though, is the court's unwillingness to LISTEN TO THE CRIMINAL and act appropriately (emphasis below is mine): 

But a number of sex offenders do know they can’t be trusted around kids. Couey reportedly was so aware of his problem that he’d pleaded for help in the past, saying he was a danger to children because he couldn’t stop himself from sexually abusing them. That compulsion is what makes it next to impossible to “cure� chronic child molesters.

“They’re basically untreatable,� Schlesinger said. “They’re predatory, compulsive, repetitive offenders. These are very dangerous people, aroused by children. That’s part of their sexuality. It’s very, very difficult to change that.�

In spite of that reality, many still are only serving fractions of their sentences — which often are light to begin with.

“The bottom line is that almost all these offenders will get out because they don’t have any laws barring them fro m getting out,� Schlesinger said. “They’re allowed back in the community because the court system is following the law.�

If someone had listened to Couey, and taken action, this little girl would still be alive.  Wouldn't you think that common sense should prevail in these cases?

I cannot even begin to understand the grieving Jessica's family has had to endure, and certainly can't even fathom the horror this innocent girl faced when buried alive.  But I am a Mom.  And I know what I would do to any son-of-a-bitch who comes anywhere near *MY* children.  As my good friend Raven said: "FURY wouldn’t be the word I would use to describe how I would feel."  It goes way beyond that.