I just heard an NPR story about a program to keep sex offenders locked up after they've served their sentences, but to keep them on treatment programs. The idea is to fix them before releasing them; the concern is that it's really just, y'know, keeping people locked up forever. I can see arguments on both sides, but the shrink who oversees the problem was quoted as saying (in paraphrase) that sex offenders are subject to greater concern than violent offenders because sex offenders undermine our basic value system.
Well. Um. Of course rape and molestation go against any worthwhile value system, but I'd argue that value systems which give criminal violence a pass are crappy value systems that need to be phased out. Maybe I'm not red-blooded enough for shrinks who work for the government.
2 comments:
I heard that one two Aaron, I think that was more of a bad editing thing.The guy was trying to express that sex crimes kinda hit us in a deep in the gut fundamental way, and he just could not give it in a short enough sound bite
Mateo
I dig, but I'd say how long we keeps criminals locked up should have more to do with recidivism rates and such than with how upset anyone is. Not that I'm going to bat for rapists and molestors, but still, if you wanna lock them up forever, rewrite the sentencing laws rather than sneaking it in the back door.
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