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punishment to fit the crime

I've been reading blogs and their commentary on what should be done with sex offenders.


One I just had to respond to was Now that's Progress.

As far as I'm concerned, if you sexually abuse a child, you deserve to have your rights taken away. You deserve to be labeled. You deserve to be watched indefinitely. You don't "repay your debt to society" in jail and then be let loose to repeat your actions.Is it unconstitutional? Maybe. But I don't think too many people are going to argue about changing the Constitution on this matter. You want a winning political issue across the board? This is it.

This really burned me up. If you really believe that a debt to society does not end after a prison term, then all white collar crimes should be put in a registry and forced to wear GPS locator ankle bracelets. And violent crimes such as murder. And theft. And drug dealing. Why stop there? Not just everyone who goes to prison, add in everyone who goes to jail. Prison and jail are not the same thing. If you are held overnight or a few days until trial, that is in the local jail. Let's register them too. Oh, and some more. Every drunk driver who gets a ticket. Every driver that breaks the speed limit. Anyone at all issued a citation.
The point is, you have to draw the line somewhere. Punishment should fit the severity of the crime. A 20 year old who had consensual sex with a 16 year old should not be lumped in with a 40 year old who raped and tortured and killed a 6 year old.

I don't love sex offenders. Some of my best friends were molested by fathers, step-fathers, or friends of the family. They are in prison, or out and being monitored. But, and this is a big but, I knew many girls in high school who started having sex before they turned 17, the age of consent in IL. I had sex at 16 with a guy 4 years older than me. I was 6 months short of being legal. Some may argue that I was too young to know what I was doing, and that's the problem to be discussed in my next entry. Statutory rape laws are nothing more than "theft of chattel" laws from the middle ages. Go read Harmful to Minors while you wait for that new entry.

Laws need to be brought into line. A conviction for posession of a joint should not carry a longer sentence than murder. The numbers of non-violent offenders in jail should not outnumber the violent ones. Treatment and rehabilitation programs should have enough funding to treat the prison population waiting for it. Consensual sex in high school should not be on the same level as raping a toddler.

Laws restricting an offender from living within 1,000 ft of a school does squat if a kid lives next door. Not being allowed near a park doesn't do any good if the kid and offender are in a chat room online. Harrassing offenders to drive them out of town doesn't protect the kids in the next town they move to, or remove those never-caught molesters who still live in your town. Teach your kids to know what is a bad touch. Be responsible enough to warn them about friends and familty too, not just strangers. Be approachable so that if something is going on, your kids (or someone else's) aren't afraid to come to you or another adult and tell the adult that someone is hurting them.

For more information go to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Their CyberTipline handles leads from individuals reporting the sexual exploitation of children. There are plenty of creepy people online. (not all are after kids, but adults need to know how to protect themselves from stalkers online too)

Stranger Danger or creepy Uncle Joe?

Last week I read a story about two convicted child molesters that were murdered in Bellingham, Washington after their names were found in the state sex offender database. I was curious about what sort of information Illinois provides about sex offenders living in my state. I looked in the Illinois Sex Offender Database to see where these offenders lived. They are scattered throughout the towns I looked at. My hometown where my parents still live has 4. The college town where I did my undergrad work has 42. The town where I work has 10. The town where I currently live has 9. One of them lives in the apartment building next to mine.
My reaction to a sexual predator living next door was so quick I don’t know which thoughts came first: worry for the kids in the neighborhood, apathy because I have no children or sympathy for the offender. His crime is listed as aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 13. I am torn between the horror of the unknown details of his crime, and the sad state of criminals who have already served their time. People who have paid their proverbial debt to society are supposed to be able to make a new life. They find someplace to live, find a job and become a productive member of society. Often they are victims of NIMBY, or “not in my back yard”. No one wants to be the one to have to live next to someone convicted of a crime but everyone needs a place to live. Many states have passed laws that restrict how close an offender may live near a school, day care or any place where children congregate. Offenders are left with few choices in what housing is left in the areas where they are allowed to live.
In their September 5th issue Time reported on state and local regulations that are leaving offenders with no where to live. Bruce Winick, a professor at the University of Miami, said, “By socially ostracizing these people and making it next to impossible for them or find a job or have educational opportunities or otherwise forge necessary social ties, what do we expect is going to happen with them?”. The article in Time continued with the story of a 23 year old sex offender in Iowa who was “convicted at 19 for having nonforcible sexual relations with a 14-year old”. The offender is considering moving to another state to escape Iowa’s new law that will force him to move out of his current residence which is too close to a day care center.
The story of the 23 year old reminded me of how many people I knew in High School who dated people older or younger than them. A four year age difference doesn’t seem like much, just a freshman and a senior. Generations of parents have found fault with who their kids dated, but age differences in high school dating continue. In a day of sex registries that require registration for life, is statutory rape charges the best way to deal with your child’s dating habits and sex life? In Illinois the age of consent is 17, and on paper a girl magically becomes able to make her own decisions her junior year of high school simply by blowing out the candles. That one day of difference could ruin a young man for life; possibly leaving him ostracized from society with no where to live in his own hometown.
Each day on when I come home I see children under fourteen playing on the sidewalk. They are often in playing in groups with no adults nearby. Have their parents told them about good touch bad touch? Do their parents know that 90% of offenses are commited by a family member or friend of the child than a stranger? Somehow I doubt the parents would be interested in that statistic. It is so much easier to plan for that 10% than to believe that Uncle Joe might be up to no good at the family barbeque. If and when I have children, they will know all that I can teach them about avoiding danger, rather than just fear for the world around them.

The vacation that never happened

An entry at What if no one's watching? reminded me of what I missed out on. It doesn't compare to the devastation that the victims of Katrina have in their lives, but I'll still take a moment to regret the vacation that never happened.

I always said I'd get down to New Orleans, but I never seemed to have time and money (at the same time at least) to get there. I wanted to see the historic old buildings, and those probably won't survive this. I feel guilty that I want to cry over some old buildings when so many people are homeless or dead, but I still wish I had visited last year (or all the years before that) like I wanted to.

I will go when they rebuild, and not just after everything is done. The city needs tourism dollars to convince them to save as much as possible. If no one wants to travel there for years until the rebuilding is complete, they won't be able to. Chain hotels and restaurants can handle some lean years, but the cool places like hole-in-the-wall restaurants and family run hostels or B&B's won't be able to afford all their repairs if they don't get customers. I'm hoping the infrastructure is done in 6 months, so that in a year hopefully those small places will start coming back to life. (and if you think they can get the power, water, and other services back to full capacity in less than 6 months, I hope you are right) The power to the oil companies is done, god forbid that some SUV's have to wait in line for gas. It will take a lot longer to get every little house powered up after the water is gone. The last estimate I heard was that it will take 3 months to completely drain the water, and who knows how long to remove all that toxic slimy sludge after that.

Special Message from Governor Blagojevich

On the State of Illinois webpage a message is posted from Governor Blagojevich:

"If you have any friends or relatives from the hurricane-stricken areas that are arriving in Illinois, you can direct them to the Hurricane Katrina Victim Assistance Hotline at 800-843-6154. This is a hotline for one-stop shopping of State services, including: health care, crisis counseling, temporary housing and food and clothing allotments. It will be operational between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm.
You can also donate items such as new or laundered clothing, towels and bedding (all items must be packaged), as well as non-perishable food items and school supplies by dropping them off at any of the Illinois Department of Human Services offices across the state. For further information, please visit www.illinois.gov/dropoff.cfm or call our hotline at 800-843-6154. "

My coworkers and I have begun collecting clothing, sheets, towels, and school supplies to take to a IL dept. of human services office later this week. I try to clean out my closets a few times a year to make a donation to the salvation army, and I am getting together an extra batch for this drive. Please donate in any way you can, if you can't send a check to the Red Cross you can find that old pair of pants you wore only once or twice (that no longer fit) or a spare blanket or a box of crayons for a child's school supplies.

Now remember, used does not equal trash. Don't be a jerk and donate clothing full of holes or stains. If it can't be worn it can't be worn. Wash things before you bring them in, a blanket that still smells like it was packed away in a damp basement can't be immediately given to those in need. I know kids always want to donate that can of lima beans or pickled beets to the canned good drive at school, but give something good too. I'm sure a hungry child would rather have a box of mac n' cheese or canned soup than whatever has been sitting in the back of your cabinets for years.

When you do a good deed, do it right.

University's plan to help refugees becomes clearer

SIUC is making progress in accepting students from the Gulf Coast:

University's plan to help refugees becomes clearer

Jim Carl spent hours on the phone Friday.
SIUC's assistant director of admissions fielded calls from Gulf Coast region students trying to salvage a semester devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
"I've literally had the phone down not five minutes since this morning," Carl said Friday, one day after Chancellor Walter Wendler announced that the University would assist displaced students.
Carl's phone conversations dealt mostly with Illinois students who went away to college in Louisiana and Mississippi. These people returned home, regrouped and figured out their next move, he said.
Three displaced students entered classes last week and 16 more expressed interest in the University's offer.
Registration fees will be waived to make it easier on them. Transcripts will be an issue only if a student intends to graduate from the University, officials said.
"We'll worry about that when things settle down," Carl said.

useless

this quote sums up what when wrong, why I cried each night on the way home as I listened to the news reports.

The strain was apparent in other ways. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, dropped his head and cried on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, `And yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' — and she drowned Friday night. She drowned on Friday night," Broussard said.
"Nobody's coming to get her, nobody's coming to get her. The secretary's promise, everybody's promise. They've had press conferences — I'm sick of the press conferences. For God's sakes, shut up and send us somebody."


From:
New Orleans Begins Counting its Dead

SIUC to enroll students displaced by hurricane

My alma mater, SIUC, is offering in-state tuition to victims of Katrina:

The University will admit students from storm-battered universities in the Gulf Coast region at in-state tuition rates, Chancellor Walter Wendler said Thursday. "These students were just starting school or getting ready to start school," Wendler said. "Now we're offering them the opportunity to go to school at SIU-Carbondale." The nature of the situation leaves details sparse. Administrators said they did not know how many students will take the University up on its offer or when they would begin classes. Since many students will have no access to their transcripts in the foreseeable future, Wendler said the University would admit them without their records. "We're going to bend all the rules to accommodate them," Wendler said. "Some of these students don't have transcripts. We're going to take them on their word."
Information for Prospective Salukis (Students)
Admissions, Graduate 618/536-7791
Admissions, Undergraduate 618/536-4405



This is a wonderful opportunity to help students who have been displaced. They can still start the fall school year without worrying if their school will be reopened, if they can find housing or not, etc. Try it out, even if it is just for a year. SIU is a great school, with so many programs to choose from that students can probably find classes that will transfer back to their own school if they choose. (I'm biased, but I think they might as well stay all 4 years)

Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is a terrible tragedy, it has brought out the best and the worst in people. Blogs covering the events in New Orleans are popping up, the Interdictor (via Boing Boing) is one I am reading.

Please help out if you can, the Red Cross and Salvation Army are taking donations. Beware of scams online, though. Money is a better help right now than goods, it is too expensive to ship goods to a disaster site and it helps the local economy to buy local whenever possible.

I'll have more to say when I have time to type.