I've written before on my views on the "3 Strikes" law , now I want to address a segment of society that doesn't even deserve that many chances. Sexual offenders.
How many times have you heard of the case where the police are arresting a man who is a convicted sexual offender for yet another sexual offense. Usually it's someone who spent quite a while in jail the last time, has a long record of sexual offenses, and has had every treatment and attended every program we've yet to devise. The reason we're hearing about him is because the programs, the treatment, the jail time...
DIDN'T WORK.
We desperately need a new type of sentence. When someone is convicted of
more than one count of rape, they are sent away forever. Period. Not more
than one case, more than one count. One rape. One time. That's all you
get. If you are convicted of one count, we'll call it a fluke. We'll
give you a stiff jail sentence, tons of therapy, all the programs we can
stuff down you're throat. We'll make you apologize to the victim, the
victim's family, the victim's friends, the town they came from, on public
television and in the papers. And then we'll turn you loose. And if you
do it again, you're history. Period.
Now, to be honest, I believe that sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated.
Ever. No matter what you do. If they get caught doing it once, chances
are it wasn't the first time, and odds are awfully good that he'll do it
again.
For some reason this seems most true of child molesters. Think about it
people: to molest a child in the first place, you've got to have some
seriously screwed up wiring in your head. Do you really think a place
like prison fixes that wiring?? Not a chance; if anything it
seems to make it worse. Guys like Richard Allen Davis go to prison,
serve half their lives there, and come out just rearing to go out, find
some sweet, innocent little child, and... It's almost like bottling them
up. They don't come out thinking, "Geez, I can hardly wait to find a
nice woman, settle down, and have 2.5 kids via straight, heterosexual
sex." No, they come out with their hunger sharpened like ANYONE that's
been in prison. What society has yet to come to grips with is that these
people's hunger is for, as repulsive as it may seem, little kids!
In my not-so-humble opinion, we should take these scumbags and throw
them away like so much trash...
Do I sound sarcastic and bitter? Wonder why...
One thing the article doesn't tell you is that, after his parole was
served, Singleton tried to settle in Contra Costa county in California.
He stipulated that he had had friends there, that he used to fish there,
that that was the place he felt was his home. The surrounding
community rose up in one large demonstration (read "potential lynch
mob") outside his house to convince him that perhaps he needed to
rethink his selection of location for renewed domestic living. One
person (I forget her name) went in to talk to him, to convince him
that the people outside were quite serious and that his life was in
peril. Even then, judging from his cocky reaction, she knew this man
had no regard for society or the law, that his time in prison had made
no real mark on him, and that he was, in her own words, "a time bomb".
This man should have been given the chair for his incredibly sadistic
attempt to murder this woman in the most brutal and painful way he
could manage, whether successful or not, or at least given a life
sentence with absolutely no chance of parole.
Convicted California Rapist, Mutilator Arrested
Thursday February 20, 1997 11:11:00 AM EST
TAMPA, Fla. - Lawrence Singleton, convicted in California
more than 10 years ago of raping a 15-year-old girl and then chopping
off her arms, was in police custody Thursday facing charges he murdered
an unidentified woman, police said.
Singleton, 69, served eight years of a 14-year sentence for raping
and mutilating Mary Vincent in 1978. When he was released on parole,
no community in California would take him and he spent almost a month
after his release living on the grounds of San Quentin prison before
moving to Florida.
Vincent testified she pretended to be dead after he cut off her forearms
so that he would leave. She managed to make her way to a highway where
she was spotted and taken to a hospital.
Wednesday night, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy called by
neighbors found the nude body of a woman in Singleton's home, a police
spokesman said.
Singleton, who was covered with blood when the deputy arrived, first said
he had cut himself chopping vegetables but the lawman saw a bloody body
of a naked woman inside the house, the spokesman said.
After settling in Tampa in 1988, Singleton was arrested several times on
minor charges ranging from shoplifting to mail fraud. Police gave no other
information about the slain victim.
So now my question is this: Why was this man released? Oh, I know,
the letter of the law permitted this horrible man to be released because,
after all, he didn't actually kill Mary Vincent, and as a reward
for only unsuccessfully attempting to murder her, we gave him
14 years and let him out early for not murdering and raping any young
girls while in prison.
Related Topics: